South Africa has approximately 6.5 million children between birth and 6 years and an estimated 84% of these children have no access to any form of ECD (Early Childhood Development also known as Crèches) training! One of the requirements for good development is that the trained caregivers have appropriate books and toys to be able to help the parents develop the children. With the help of our funder, the Jim Joel Fund, we have been able to support ECD’s and FCM’s (Family Community Motivator programmes) with new storybooks and toys and the means to contain them. Biblionef will be donating 35 book bags and 35 roller boxes containing, in total, 3500 new storybooks and 4830 educational resources! The organisations receiving this donation are:

• ELRU (Early Learning Resource Unit)
• Lesedi Educare Association
• Sithuthukile Trust
• Tshepang  Educare Trust

Research shows that the largest part of brain development takes place during the first few years of life. Providing the best educational experience for pre-schoolers is imperative for their future growth and their well-being, both psycho-socially and cognitively. Therefore, ECD’s has become an important focus in South Africa.

Many families in the rural areas of South Africa are unable to send their children to ECD’s because they are not financially able to, there are no ECD’s in the area, the households are headed by a sibling or the importance of ECD’s are not recognized. Therefore, the encouragement of FCM’s has also grown countrywide. FCM’s allows a trained facilitator to visit families that have very young children and make use of books and toys to teach them basic skills that they would have been taught at an ECD.

It is wonderful to know that so many more children who fall outside the care of accredited ECD’s are receiving the training they need to ensure their all-round development and growth. Children who have undergone these 2 types of training have the necessary skills when they start primary school. This gives them the advantage of immediately being able to learn according to their age and not from a lower development level.