We promote the holistic development of young children through our work which is aligned with government policies and the latest international research.
Our approach includes:
Facilitating inter-sectoral collaboration between government, civil society and business to enable the ECD sector to provide quality services for young children.
Supporting ECD forums to improve the quality of facilities and learning in ECD centres through information sharing and resource distribution.
Training ECD principals and practitioners in research-based programmes to improve their knowledge and skills.
Working with parents to understand the importance of a diverse diet and to make healthy, affordable food choices to meet the nutritional needs of their growing babies and young children, starting in the first 1000 days.
Recognising the local context, beliefs and practices, and integrating local knowledge and skills in our work.
We are contracted by the Do More Foundation to implement their Young Child Programme in uPhongolo. We support 110 ECD centres with training, sharing information, distributing resources and delivery of Do More nutritious porridge.
We facilitate monthly Young Child Forum meetings and have organised presentations on topics such as affordable, healthy menus for ECD centers by the Department of Health’s dietician; child safety by uPhongolo Municipality Disaster Management and SAPS; requirements for ECD registration by the Zululand district environmental health officer, and the function shift from DSD to DBE. ECD principals and practitioners also regularly attend workshops to improve teaching and learning at their ECD centres. Topics have included making little folded books, interactive reading, playing memory and matching card games.
Do More Foundation Newsletter:
Our team has been part of Do More Foundation’s Eat Love Play Talk programme that supports parents and caregivers to give their young children a strong foundation in life, to be the best they can be and to do well at school and in life. ECD principals and practitioners attend training once a month and in the following month run a session with parents. This is repeated each month for 7 months. The programme, which focuses on healthy eating, building loving relationships, playful learning and language development, has been very well received by the ECD centres and parents who attend the sessions and try out new ideas at home.
We support the Siyaphambili ECD Forum which has 59 members in 7 wards. We mentor the Forum Committee and support ECD centres to improve teaching and learning through skills training and distribution of early learning resources.
Our team visits every ECD centre to do profiling that reflects their registration status, infrastructure, staff complement and attendance figures. Our database assist us to identify where the needs are for infrastructure upgrades and training.
The Zero to Five Trust secured donations of Duplo boxes of toys from Care for Education for all the ECD centres we support in uPhongolo and uMhlabuyalingana, amounting to over R3m. Dipo Mhlongo and Siyabonga Ntombela attended Care for Education training in 2023 and facilitate one day training for ECD practitioners when distributing the boxes of toys.
