2015 May: EcoProducts Foundation: pre-school programme
Thank you to all of you who have been so supportive of the launch of the EcoProducts Foundation. All your shares, likes and comments help spread the word and have been so encouraging to us. We’d like to tell you a little more about one of our programmes, Baobab Pre-school.
Like most mothers, Venda women work hard all day long, sometimes away from home growing and harvesting crops, wild-harvesting foods and collecting firewood and water. Of course someone needs to take care of their little ones while they’re away and this task often falls to one or two village women and so informal pre-schools are set up.
It’s heart breaking to see some of these bare, meagre places which offer little more than hard concrete floors surrounded by dusty unfenced grounds and if they are lucky, an old car tyre for the children to play with. Safe play areas and equipment, good food and warm little beds and blankets for nap time seem like an impossible dream for the women who run these little pre-schools. Nor do the women have any training in early childhood development so by the time the children are of school-going age, they are ill-prepared for the school years ahead of them.
This is what we’re doing
Early Childhood Development (ECD) has been identified as a means of breaking the poverty cycle. Those children who have received a strong foundation in their early development have been found to blossom academically. By focusing on the correct development areas and adequate nutrition before school-going age, children are given a boost that will help them for the rest of their lives.
The Baobab Pre-school programme was begun as an initiative which identifies under-resourced pre-schools in the areas where baobab harvesters live. EcoProducts Foundation has partnered with the Sumbandila Trust who has been involved in educating rural children in under-privileged schools since 2007.
How it works
Our aim is to help four pre-schools per year with these core actions:
If you’d like to contribute in any way, please contact me at sarah@ecoproducts.co.za. I’ll be delighted to hear from you!
Here’s to creating a culture of caring.
