Singakwenza, which means “We can do it” is a Non-Profit Organisation providing Early Childhood Education to economically disadvantaged communities.
Thoko, one of our ECD trainers, chatted to Zeni, an Instagram infuencer, live on Instagram today. She spoke about how she, and our other 4 trainers, are helping adults throughout Africa to make learning-through-play opportunities happen for children under 5.
A huge thank you to all the wonderful knitters and crocheters who have made sure that all our little ones are warm and cozy this winter with their beautiful beanies. Special thanks to the ladies who have made lots and LOTS of beanies, including Sheilagh Erskine, Christine Britton, Janine Finch, Carolyn Milsom, and the ladies from the Wesley Methodist and All Saints churches.
In order for the creches to reopen safely under the Covid-19 restrictions, all adults and children over 2 need to have at least one mask to wear. Our mask numbers were given a wonderful boost with donations of 75 kiddies’ masks from Hilton Clothing and 50 practitioners’ masks from LT Printers and Gianotti Branding this Mandela Day. A number of individual donors also made lots of masks for us, so we will be able to issue each creche with enough stock to open safely with their restricted numbers. We are so grateful to all of you who have given so generously.
Did you know that it is very important for left-handed children to be given left-handed scissors and right-handed children be given right-handed scissors when they are learning to cut? The blades on the scissors are joined differently for left and right-handed scissors, and using the correct ones helps children learn to both cut more accurately and to keep their hand in the correct position. Thanks to the amazing sponsorship from The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, each of our kiddies was given the correct handed scissors in their Learn at Home activity box to practise with at home.
As we distribute our Learn at Home activity boxes to each of the 720 children in the 18 creches who are in our program this year, every child will also receive their own isiZulu book from Book Dash. Some children took a while to choose which book they wanted, and this little one wanted to sit and read his immediately!
Thank you to Book Dash (bookdash.org) and all their donors for enabling us to continue to promote early literacy.
What an incredible day! The months of hard work that our team has put in culminated in the first delivery of the Learn at Home activity boxes this morning. Each of the 720 children who should be in our creche programme at the moment is receiving their own activity box, which contains a number of carefully selected toys to develop a wide range of vital preschool skills. There is also a booklet in isiZulu for the parents/caregivers to explain how to set up the over 60 different learning activities and games, and how these will help their child’s holistic development. As everything is made from household packaging, if any of the toys get lost or broken, the parents can easily replace them. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our donors – both corporate and individual – who have continued to support us during these challenging times. It is you who have made this possible.
