Newsletter - October 2011
Content
- Freda Brock retires
- Director's address at the 2011 AGM
- Exhibition feature: Sankofa sculpture
- World Bank Malawi project
- Team news: Community Development team
- Introducing food gardens and sustainable living to ECD centres
- Publications news
- ELRU staff member profile: Rafeekah Patel
- ELRU Board member profile: Vernon Weitz
Freda Brock retires
The 33rd AGM of the Cape Educational Trust that administers ELRU was a memorable one as Freda Brock took the opportunity to announce her retirement as director from the end of October 2011.
We asked Freda share her uppermost thought about ELRU and ECD at this time.
Response: 'Together we have met the challenge of demonstrating how different kinds of interventions and services could work together at local level to strengthen support to vulnerable young children and families.
We will always want to reach the most isolated and under-resourced communities without compromising on quality. But the need is vast, and the need for scaling programmes that work will always pose dilemmas about quality.
The change we want often calls for fresh thinking and new partnerships - these bring a measure of uncertainty and conflict, and it will be important for the organisation to maintain a strong sense of its own purpose and identity and of its shared values and leadership.
In order to allow for a smooth transition Freda will fill a supportive role when Alison Lazarus comes on board at the beginning of November 2011.
Director's address at the 2011 AGM
ELRU is in an extremely exciting time in its history.
Since December last year, we have been in a process of organisational development to ensure that systems and teams are strong and ready for developments as they arise. We are not 'starting new'. ELRU is robust. We have experience and strong leadership throughout the organisation.
The training landscape is changing dramatically. In striving to build the capacity of public institutions, Government is effectively shrinking the role that NGOs can play in teacher training and support.
ELRU's approach to improving quality and extending reach is to pilot new approaches for different contexts, and then to support other organisations to adapt these ways of working in their own programmes.
(ELRU's) ECD Heritage Exhibition is a tribute to role models who infused a particular culture in the sector over three decades. But it also embraces the spirit of Sankofa - which reminds us that in making new paths toward transformation we need to reflect on our past and carry forward things that should not be forgotten.
Read the full Director's Report here.
Heritage exhibition feature: Sankofa sculpture
The concept of Sankofa is derived from King Andinkera of the Akan people of West Africa.
Sankofa is expressed in the Akan language as "se wo were fi na wasan kofa a yenki". Literally translated it means "it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot".
Sankofa teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That is, we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward.
Sankofa is symbolically expressed as a mythic bird that flies forward, turning its head to look back. It has an egg (symbolising the future) in its mouth.
World Bank Malawi Project
Click to enlarge pictures
In July we were approached to assist the Malawian Government in a World Bank supported Protecting Early Childhood Development Project to upgrade training of caregivers in Community Child Care centres in that country.
Our assignment involved editing and contributing to draft training materials for caregivers who work in these centres, a supervisor and mentor guide and developing a simple assessment system for caregivers. Linda Biersteker and Karen van der Merwe worked together with ELRU associate Sue Connolly on these materials and then attended a four day validation workshop in Limbe, near Blantyre, Malawi in August.
Here our inputs were discussed with the Malawian team of academics, ECD NGOs and government officials led by Francis Chalamanda, Head of ECD in the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development. We had the opportunity to visit some community based child care centres in an urban area, a peri-urban village and a deeper rural community to see the programmes which are initiated and run by communities facilitated by local government development workers.
On the 5th to the 9th September Karen returned to the town of Zomba accompanied by Welekazi Dlova to orientate the national trainers to the materials and give inputs on adult education, facilitation and mentoring.
It was a wonderful opportunity for us to share our experiences and to learn from the Malawian experience. We were struck by the community participation and commitment to young children that we saw..
We wish them all the best with their Mmera Mponyamba campaign (invest in children's early years). The literal meaning is Prepare the Harvest.
Team News: Community Development team
The influence of this team is spreading through their direct work as well as through partner organisations.
- In the North West Province we are partnering with Ntataise and Ilifa Labantwana pilot around scaling up ECD.
- NACCW training to include an ECD component in their programme, beginning in Alice and Kokstad.
- Philani Child Health and Nutrition Project: 120 Health Workers were trained in 2011.The focus of this training is to include an ECD component as a part of their home based intervention.
- Lusikisiki Wakh'umntwana Wakh'isizwe: This project comes to an end in 2011. ELRU will leave behind 12 trained FCMs, three of whom have a coordination role. A new NPO is in a process of being registered and managed by the coordinators. A young mother's programme has been initiated this year and will continue to be supported by the coordinators. ECD Training was provided for community based ECD centres and primary school foundation phase practitioners during the past 4 years to build and strengthen capacity. These centres are now all registered with the Department of Social Development.
- Some fantastic news from Vredenburg - Siyabonga Care Village FCM caregivers were invited to participate in a Gardening Training programme provided by the Department of Agriculture.
- The FCM programme based in Langa is funded by the Department of Social Development. There are 4 trained FCMs implementing the programme and it serves 80 families and 110 children that are not in ECD centres.
- The Big Issue Project - 60 vendors are currently being trained in parenting skills.
- FCM training for organisations, funded by the Jim Joel Fund has completed a second cycle of training in July 2011. The team is currently recruiting for the 2012 training cycle. A learning forum is planned for the 18 October 2011 at ELRU.
Introducing food gardens and sustainable living to ECD centres
Recently we visited Little Bright Stars Educare and Kamva Educare for a site visit. The principals, Grace and Noloxolo, had been two of four ECD centre principals who participated in an ELRU and Western Cape Department of Social Development project that included sustainable living and food gardens as part of an integrated programme.
Read the full blog post here.
Publications news
New Publication: Ideas Book - Pre-maths activities
The Ideas Book is great for teaching our young children how to count, match, sort and recognise numbers and much much more. It covers concepts such as patterns, shapes, numbers and data handing.
ISBN No 978-1-875069-78-1 Retail selling price: R70 per copy Ph: 021 7627500 - Jade and Nurjaha.
Book Fairs and Exhibitions
We had a very special and successful book sale at the Cavendish Square Charity Book Fair 25 – 28 August. Thank you to Cavendish Mall for this wonderful opportunity! Click here to see pictures on our blog.
We also exhibited at the Reading Association of South Africa (RASA) conference at UCT on the 16 – 18 September.
Staff Profile: Rafeekah Patel
I started at ELRU in July 2007.
Before joining ELRU I worked at two other NGOs as a trainer - one in PE and the other was at Grassroots. My career in the ECD field started off as being a teacher at a community educare centre. This was unusual coming from the medical field (I was a medical technologist before). The career change came about after my divorce when I noticed behavioural changes in my daughter, age 2 at the time (being withdrawn; hiding from everyone so that she could be on her own; tearful etc). Besides being worried and guilt stricken, I needed to understand what she was experiencing and to equip myself with the knowledge and skills so as to comfort and help her. Thus I embarked on doing various courses in Early Childhood Development and many moons later, here I am!!!!
I am glad to be part of ELRU because it gives me the opportunity to practise my passion ie to share my knowledge and skills with other adults working with young children. Hopefully this will empower and change attitudes in teachers to realise the importance of creating a stimulating environment that fosters a love for learning in children.
ELRU has allowed me to exercise my belief that by providing a structured ECD programme, the cycle of poverty can be broken. Individuals are unable to change all the social ills of the world but we can attempt through the programme to develop good self-esteem in children.
My vision for ELRU is that the organisation should grow and reach more children.
Board Profile: Vernon Weitz
Vernon Weitz is currently the Managing Director of the CDRA.
He has been active in the NGO sector for 20 years and is a previous employee of ELRU.
During the mid-1990s he held the position of National Director of the National Educare Forum [NEF], a civil society body that facilitated the distribution of a R70 million ECD Grant from the Independent Development Trust [IDT].
Historically, he has been involved in community development formations, is presently a Board member of the Centre for Christian Spirituality and closely connected to the renewal of Kairos Southern Africa.
Vernon is interested in new forms of organisation in civil society and is of the opinion that organisations should be learning and thinking institutions.
He has been connected to various academic institutions and holds a BA Hons [Sociology] MPhil [Education] from UWC and a Diploma in Adult Ed [UCT