Our 67 Minutes for Mandela Day
To honour what would have been his 100th Birthday, our team challenged themselves on Mandela Day (18 July 2018) to 67 minutes of active awareness creation amongst parents and caregivers in the community about why #inclusionmatters.
Why does awareness matter?
Inclusion is not just about a few activities during creche or school time that provide a child with a learning intervention. Instead, we like to think of it as a holistic approach that requires sustainable interaction from all influencers in a child’s life. Our Non-Centre Based (NCB) programme has shown significant improvements in children whose parents and/or caregivers are active in their learning environment. To promote this, we need to help parents understand their children’s barriers to learning, their (the parents’ role) in school readiness, the importance of nutrition in development as well as the available resources at their (the parents’) disposal.
Here are some of the success stories from our #MandelaDay Awareness Campaign
Madabalaza ECD Centre
Madabalaza ECD centre has become a leader of inclusion within our ECD programme. Teacher, Tenjiwe is passionate about including all children, including those with barriers to learning. Our team conduct regular visits at the ECD centre and over the last two years of working with them we have been able to identify and support several children who have shown barriers to learning.
It is our wish for Madabalaza that through the correct framework, they become a fully inclusive centre/ hub. On Mandela Day our team were able to interact with 8 parents and share various activities with them that they can perform with their children at home. A lot of emphasis was given to the importance of language in learning. Parents were able to make books from waste, with themes ranging from wild animals to healthy eating.
NCB Home Visit with Lwando
Lwando and his mom were one of the families visited by our NCB team. Lwando is 12 years old and is living with Cerebral Palsy. Lwando has been included in Siyakwazi’s NCB programme since 2013. The team work together with him and his mom to support his individual needs which include individual stimulation sessions and physiotherapy.
For the home visits on Mandela Day our NCB team had prepared some books from waste of their own. They shared stories about Madiba’s legacy, his passion for education and community. After the story session the team went about planting various vegetables in the families’ gardens. Sharing with Lwando’s mom the importance of good nutrition in the home.
Reaching new parents
Our schools team were also active with their home visits, focusing on visiting parents whose children are not currently enrolled at an ECD centre. The drive for the school’s team was to create emphasis around the importance of early development and school readiness. Early identification is one of our driving principles and we strive to make parents aware of the critical role they play in shaping the success of their children’s future.
Our aim is to continue the parental awareness drive in the coming months including the upcoming celebration of Women’s Day. In doing so we hope to reach more children in KwaNzimakwe, supporting our goal of reaching a whole community and hoping for 100% interaction within the region.