Thanda's Early Learning Initiative provides high-quality learning opportunities for 260 children aged between 2 and 5 years old in the rural area of Mtwalume on the south coast of South Africa. Our proprietary curriculum and specially trained teachers and facilitators teach the children more than just numeracy and literacy but also essential life-skills like empathy, critical thinking and self-confidence. Our mission is to empower people to create their own successful lives.
Mtwalume is a severely under-served rural area, where many families are surviving on a single social grant/pension. There is very little access to learning opportunities, especially at the ECD level. The most critical years for childhood development are ages 0-5 years old. Without learning opportunities, the children in this community are at risk of missing out on an essential foundation, which negatively impacts their chances for success when they enter school and proceed into adulthood.
Thanda offers early learning opportunities to the children of our community. Our proprietary curriculum centres around the 5 Game-Changing Skills (Creativity, critical thinking, empathy, perspective and self-esteem) and the Circle of Courage (belonging, mastery, independence and generosity) as we understand that these are important elements of a well-rounded human being and are essential for children to learn in order to become resilient, thriving adults.
Thanda helps children to reach their literacy/numeracy milestones AND lays the foundation in building essential life-skills, which sets them up with a strong foundation for a life-long love of learning. A recent independent assessment of our beneficiaries showed that our children far out-perform even children who attend private ECD institutions in the wealthiest areas of South Africa, showing that our curriculum and methods are extremely effective in setting up children for a bright future.
