The Problem
Four ECD Training Centres identified practitioners that have undergone level 4 Early Childhood Development (ECD) Training at their institutions. The problem faced by the Practitioners was that they did not have the necessary educational resources needed to implement what they learnt.
Biblionef’s Solution
With financial support from the National Lotteries Commission, Biblionef has supported 100 ECD Centres with a crucial injection of storybooks and educational toys. Twenty-five Centres were chosen from four ECD Training Centres, namely; Sithuthukile Trust, Khanimamba Training and Resource Centre, ELRU and Custoda. The Centres are located in rural areas throughout the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces of South Africa.
Each Centre received a roller box containing 40 storybooks in the children’s mother tongue (isiXhosa, Xitsonga, Sepedi, Afrikaans, Setswana, isiZulu, isiNdebele and Siswati) and a few English storybooks. Included in the roller box were 9 educational toys, puzzles and posters.
An example of the educational toys, puzzles and posters donated by Biblionef
An example of the selection of storybooks donated by Biblionef
Book Donation Time
Biblionef’s Project Managers travelled to each Province to handover the ECD Centres’ donations. Our staff workshopped the importance of storytelling and the vital role the Practitioners play in creating a love for reading amongst their learners. Our staff used the opportunity to carry out site visits at some of the ECD Centres; the results were shocking! Some of the Centres had extremely old and tattered storybooks and others had absolutely none! Shockingly, the majority of Centres we visited did not have mother tongue storybooks for their children.
Some of the storybooks were extremely old and tattered
Some of the Centres had absolutely no books!
This highlights how important and necessary this project is; 5, 762 children now have access to quality storybooks in their mother tongue, which was previously not the case.
We cannot wait to receive feedback from the ECD Practitioners on how the resources have assisted them in implementing their new skills. Once again, thank you to the NLC for making all of this possible!