Outreach Programs

TREE’s Family Based ECD programmes focus on working at household level, with households with young children, which have been identified as particularly vulnerable by community committees. These young children have no access to site based ECD programmes. Family workers support caregivers to provide their young children with opportunities for play, development and early stimulation, as well as access basic social services. Playgroup models have also been designed to increase access to opportunities for development through play for vulnerable young children who have no such access.

The Izingane Zethu (IZI) Programme is a partnership between the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, TREE, The Valley Trust and the Kranskop Community, and runs in two geographic areas – Centocow (TREE) and Kranskop. Under the guidance of the IZI Project Coordinator and two ECD Coordinators, Family Facilitators (FF‟s) provide support to households with young children that have been identified as particularly vulnerable by the Community Childcare Committees. They build relationships with caregivers and support them to access documents, grants, healthcare, support for disabilities and illness, as well as access to play and early stimulation for their young children. Each FF is responsible for mentoring a „buddy‟, an older child who also extends play opportunities for children in the community. The ECD coordinators also support the ECD sites in the implementation of the their ECD programmes and use of teaching and learning materials, as well as hosting open days for IZI children.

AREAS OF OPERATION: FOUR COMMUNITIES IN EACH OF THE FOLLOWING / AREAS: DURBAN, PORT SHEPSTONE, BERGVILLE AND BULWER
Siyafundisana is an informal playgroup programme, where caregivers bring their young children to a community venue and play with them, using a variety of toys and under the guidance of women leaders (Abaholikazi), trained by TREE. In the second session, they use the non-didactic TREE Parenting Programme to discuss issues and challenges in meeting the rights and needs of their young children. The leaders also provide support at household level and a buddy programme has recently been introduced.

AREA: NDAKA MUNICIPALITY, LADYSMITH
The TREE Sobambisana ECD Programme is a structured playgroup programme, facilitated by caregivers under the guidance and support of Play Facilitators, trained by TREE. Each Play Facilitator is linked to a community based ECD site, which will be linked to Grade R and primary school. The process is being researched with the support of the HSRC.

An integrated ECD intervention focusing on community based ECD sites and accompanying playgroups in a deep rural community of Mhlabayulingana Ward 8 in five villages between Mangusi and the Swaziland border. TREE appreciates the support provided by the Maputaland Development & Information Centre. The Mhlabayulingana community has acknowledged TREE‟s role and commented that “TREE has brought HOPE to their people”

The Kusaselihle Integrated ECD initiative, in partnership with the Nkandla Municipality and UNICEF, is at a „make or break‟ stage in 2008. In this integrated ECD framework, TREE has been supporting 18 community ECD sites to become resources in AIDS affected communities in line with the Department of Social Development’s Conceptual Framework for Early Childhood Development Centres as resources of care and support for poor and vulnerable young children and families, including orphans and vulnerable children.

Attached to each ECD site is a Family Facilitator, who is paid a small stipend to provide support to approximately 12 – 15 households identified as being particularly vulnerable by the Community Childcare Forums in two wards of this vast, impoverished rural area close to the epicentre of the AIDS pandemic. The support from the Mayor, Council and staff of the Nkandla Municipality has been exemplary and the Kusaselihle Project Coordinator is now employed by the Nkandla Municipality to undertake the responsibilities of the Child Rights Desk. A Multi-sectoral Stakeholders Forum, facilitated by the Nkandla Municipality, and comprising representatives from local Government departments, community leadership, NGO‟s and CBO‟s, plays a key role. The Family Facilitators have received capacity building in C-IMCI (Integrated Management of Childhood Illness, a World Health Organisation strategy adopted by South Africa’s Department of Health, ECD and parenting, as well as working with and supporting vulnerable households to access basic social services, such as healthcare and grants.

The ECD sites have been supported to reach beyond the children registered at the site, to provide information and referral service to vulnerable young children and their households in the surrounding community. A significant breakthrough was the use of the ECD sites by the Department of Health to immunise children against polio and measles in the face of disease outbreaks.

The threat to KIECDI comes with the need to integrate such integrated ECD interventions into Government service delivery. Currently we face a „break‟ between the end of UNICEF resourcing and being able to source local or Provincial Government funding to resource this valuable ECD intervention, which has achieved so much.

TREE participated in Government’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) tender process.
Through the EPWP, the Department of Education awarded TREE funding to train 242 practitioners in ECD in KwaZulu-Natal in 2008. TREE staff successfully trained practitioners in the Basic Certificate in ECD (NQF Level 1) and the National Certificate in ECD (NQF Level 4). These qualifications included Fundamentals training, which comprise maths and communications literacy. Site support visits conducted after training reflected that practitioners are showing:

• Great improvement in classroom implementation.
• Well planned daily programmes for the children.
• Teachers show increased confidence and skills.
• The principals at these sites expressed their appreciation for the training and support received.
• They now have an understanding and knowledge of how a well run Grade R or ECD classroom should operate.