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Caregivers or childcare practitioners in South Africa range from domestic workers whose duties include looking after the children of their employers, to pre-school educators, or women who run informal day-care centres from their homes.
This project, in 10 pre-schools in 9 provinces in South Africa, is an attempt to empower these women, and ensure that South Africa’s most vulnerable children have access to a safe environment that enables their healthy development.
The project will enable these community based woman to:
- Upgrade their existing skills so that they can better manage their facilities
- To learn good child care and improve their chances of employment or set up their own business as childminders from their homes
- To access the skills needed to start their own day-care facility and look after children in their community
- Become knowledgeable about working with affected and infected children with HIV/AIDS
- Be up-skilled through various courses
Access to good quality childcare has additional benefits in a community:
- Mothers can leave their children in safe hands in order to pursue their own careers and employment
- Children are provided with a solid grounding and are more likely to do well at school
- Child safety is improved
- Caregivers learn to educate parents on good nutrition and health practices
READ appeals for funding to provide educational resources (books and educational toys) to these pre-schools that have mostly bare walls and bare floors.
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