Start a Preschool for 60 Children in South Africa

Dear Friends,

As you know, Thembanathi has been working for more than ten years to strengthen systems of education and care for young people and families in rural South Africa by supporting community-based early childhood education and care programs. In early 2011, we helped a group of community leaders in rural KwaZulu-Natal to establish a new early childhood development center in an area that was desperately lacking in much-needed early childhood education and care programs. The new program is called Siyabonga, which means 'we thank you' in Zulu. Since it was founded in 2011, Siyabonga has grown from 24 children in a tiny house (converted into a temporary center) to our current class of 66 children in our lovely new building, which was constructed with support from many of you.

Over the last year, word about the services and the wonderful new building has spread in the area. One single parent, for example, told us that she has brought her daughter to live with her grandparents so she can attend the center, as there were no educational programs for young children where she'd been staying before. Faced with extreme poverty and high rates of HIV/AIDS, safe and secure places for young children to learn and grow are essential. All of the guardians we've talked to say that they are excited to bring their children to our center because of the well-trained and caring staff, the safety and security it offers, and the quality of the facilities and equipment, incomporable in the area. The mother of one of our new two-year-olds told us: "I am very proud of the school my son attends. I like the high quality education and that everything about Siyabonga is up-to-date. Banele comes home everyday with something new he's learned. He also is very well fed." After only a year of operation in the new center, we've already exceeded capacity in the new classrooms and have had to create a waiting list. With additional donor funds, we hope to be able to open a new classroom soon to accommodate this expanding need. 

As we've told you before, the vision for the new building is to do more than just increase numbers. Our aim is to use the new center as a site for the development of a more holistic, comprehensive, and integrated model of support that will better serve children and their families in these communities. While we currently offer vital early childhood education and care programs that lay essential foundations for young people’s educational success, it is also critical that support for these disadvantaged young people continue into their primary and secondary school years. Even with the head start of an early childhood program, children can struggle to overcome the obstacles of the poor quality educational system and the other impacts of chronic poverty, and thus need ongoing support. This is why we are currently working on plans to expand our services to include other programming that will continue to support our young children as they grow. We hope to have some exciting updates for you on these new developments soon. 

We hope we can count on your continued support to not only ensure the needs of our current program are met but also to enable us to keep expanding our programs to serve even more young people and families in need.

 

Best wishes!

 

The Thembanathi Team

Links:

• Our project website