Embedded Files
Description
Description
Children living in Mankosi community have a lack of educational opportunities. They live spread out over a wide area and do not have access to transport to attend existing facilities in urban areas. TransCape strives to address this challenge by providing these children with various preschools throughout the community making use of a model Early Childhood Development curriculum, infrastructure and teacher training. These preschools form part of the same project enabling the monitoring and evaluation of their activities to be integrated.
Early Childhood Development (ECD) is an “umbrella term” or a general classification that refers to the processes by which children from birth to seven years of age grow and flourish socially, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and morally.
Development Challenge
Development Challenge
The OR Tambo District is characterized by poor roads, a limited skills base, no tradition of business or entrepreneurship and a high crime rate. Employment in the node is at only 11%, while 38% of adults have received no schooling at all, and only 5% of people in the area have received a higher education.
The Mankosi Administrative Area is situated in the OR Tambo Presidential Poverty Node. As illustrated above, the area is beset by a lack of skills, a severe lack of quality education as well as high unemployment and soaring HIV infection rates. In the rural communities and there is a heavy reliance on pensions and government grants for survival and high levels of illiteracy occur, even in adults who have received some form of schooling.
There is a serious shortage of early learning centres (crèches, preschools) and OVC support in Ngqeleni district, rural Eastern Cape. Young children have limited opportunities to be stimulated emotionally or intellectually, while their social needs are often not met and their nutritional intake is very poor. Roads are in poor condition and are impassable in places, making it difficult for children to travel to the few available early learning centres. Most children in the area enter the first year of school with little or no skills and limited experience of learning or problem-solving. Many children enter Grade One with stunted physical growth and development and this sets the tone for the rest of their school career. Without positive influence and proper support in the early years, rural children who are deprived from the outset are much more likely to suffer in the long term.
Project Aim
Project Aim
The aim of this project is to provide children in Mankosi Community with early childhood development opportunities, to lay a strong foundation of basic literacy and numeracy. High-quality education is provided through professional teachers, educational materials and safe infrastructure. The Early Childhood Development Project Mission is to promote, provide and support quality, sustainable and holistic early childhood development (ECD) for children from 2- 7 years in the Mankosi Community. This will be achieved by providing access to quality training in ECD for practitioners and care-givers; by providing access to a range of learning opportunities and resources for ECD; and by ensuring children’s nutritional needs are met.
140 children, ages 3-6 will benefit daily from emotional, intellectual, physical and nutritional support. These children will be better prepared to enter the school system and will raise the standard of education offered at the local school. The community workshops to be held twice a year will encourage parents to participate in the process of learning alongside their children. Once parents experience the amazing power and potential of a nurtured and educated child, they will in turn put pressure on the poorly managed local primary schools to improve and provide better quality education for their children. With an increase in available preschools and child care centres, orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in the area will be more formally supported by a regular and monitored structure. Home-Based Care workers and OVC advocates, working in other TransCape social projects will communicate regularly with the preschool teachers in an effort to monitor and support the orphans and vulnerable children. In this way, children who have lost parents or are vulnerable to neglect, are not accommodated in separate buildings, but rather form part of a mainstream support that is designed with even the most vulnerable children in mind.
Outcomes
Outcomes
The children living in Mankosi will have the opportunity to access quality education and learn how to read and write from an early stage and indulge in stimulating activities. The children of the Mankosi Community will benefit from access to social, emotional and intellectual stimulation, while teachers, care-givers, parents and guardians will develop skills and competencies associated with early childhood. All children will have 2 nutritional meals per day, contributing to their mental and physical health. Tooth brushing and handwashing routines are taught, to combat decay and diseases. Regular health check-ups by professionals will ensure early detection of issues. The teachers meet with the parents to discuss progress and answer questions about the day to day running of the program to encourage participation and ownership of the project.
Project Dynamic Info
Project Dynamic Info
Project images
Project images
Beneficiaries
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of the Early Childhood Development project are children aged 3 to 6 years living in the Mankosi community in Ward 26 of Nyandeni Municipality in the Rural Eastern Cape. There is a lack of educational opportunities in this area. Many of these children's parents hardly had an opportunity to receive formal education themselves. These families live in the deep rural Eastern Cape, far from developed areas with established municipal services and good public schools and they cannot afford to send their children to the nearest city of Mthatha where such educational opportunities do exist.
- 50 Preschool children from TransCape Education Centre
- 50 Preschool children at outreach Preschools
- 32 children from the Primary School Grade R
- All between the ages of 3 and 6 years old
- About 60% female
- All children are from Mankosi AA in the Ngqeleni District
Reports and Proposals
Reports and Proposals
Support this project
Support this project
Report abuse