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Singakwenza, which means “We can do it” is a Non-Profit Organisation providing Early Childhood Education to economically disadvantaged communities.

From Pietermaritzburg to Washington DC

From Pietermaritzburg to Washington DC

Thank you, N3 Toll Concession, for including this article in your Mobility magazine: (http://n3tcjournals.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/n3tc-mobility-summer-edition-2018-compressed.pdf)

“In November, Singakwenza, KwaZulu-Natal’s award-winning Early Childhood Development (ECD) Organisation, had the honour of sending its director, Julie Hay, to Washington DC where she attended and presented at the world’s largest ECD Conference.
With more than 9 000 international delegates, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Annual Conference is the world’s signature ECD event. This year the annual NAEYC Conference was held in Washington DC and Julie Hay was there to share Singakwenza’s journey with the esteemed international audience.
“I have wanted to attend the conference for a number of years, but knew that I would need to get sponsorship to go. In January I applied to be a speaker for one of the sessions, and was advised in July that I had been selected. I was so grateful to Emirates Airline Foundation for agreeing to sponsor my flights to this opportunity of a lifetime,” says Julie Hay, still beaming with excitement from her recent trip.
At the conference, Hay gave a presentation on “Maximising Resources” and challenged the delegates to come up with what they thought was the greatest resource they had in their classroom.
“I asked them what they couldn’t do without and what was the first resource they would save if the classroom was on fire. A number of items were named, and then I invited them to consider whether perhaps THEY were actually the greatest resource in their classroom. Without an invested, skilled and caring educator in the classroom, resources become redundant, irrespective of how much they cost. However, with the right teacher, all resources, including those made from recycling, become tools of exploring, developing and learning.”
Hay then shared the Singakwenza-experience with the practitioners.
“I explained to them how we work with almost no resources, but how, through our early childhood development and training programme, educators obtain the skills to provide the children in their care with numerous purposeful play activities every day. The delegates were amazed to see how many resources they could make from household packaging that is usually thrown away,” says Hay.
Delegates had the opportunity to make a ball using plastic bread bags and a netlon vegetable bag, and tried out a number of activities with it. “Their feedback was tremendously positive, including a newfound appreciation of the fact that an investment in oneself as an educator is a better investment than the expensive toys that were available at the Expo.”
Hay was able to attend a number of sessions on the days she wasn’t presenting, and says she enjoyed the exposure to a variety of acclaimed speakers who gave her many new ideas that will further enrich Singakwenza’s programme.
“I had wanted to find out how a second language was introduced in a classroom environment that was predominantly single language-based. A person’s brain is at its most receptive to learning languages in the early years and a child can learn up to four languages before the age of 4! However, in South Africa, most of our children are not exposed to the language they will write their Matric in until they are in Primary School. This makes studying in the second language so much harder for them.
My primary focus at the conference was to find what methods various preschools had used and which were most recommended to introduce a young child to a second language. We will be asking some of our crèches to try one of these methods next year.
It was an incredibly beneficial experience and I am truly grateful for this opportunity,” ends Hay.”

Toys are the best!

Toys are the best!

It is always so humbling and encouraging to see the impact that our training has on both adults and children. Two of our trainers, Thandeka and Thoko, ran a Waste 2 Toys workshop a few weeks ago with some parents and caregivers at Thanda, an NGO based in Sipofu in KwaZulu-Natal.

This week when our team was at the Thanda centre training their Fun Facilitators, a little 4 year old followed Thandeka when she went to wash her hands, threw his arms around her and said, “Thank you for teaching my Gogo how to make a skipping rope!”

Planting more than flowers.

Planting more than flowers.

Blackwood’s planted more than just flowers yesterday by including Singakwenza in their final Garden Talk of the year.

Guest speaker, Tanya Visser, was her usual brilliant and entertaining self, and inspired beginner and seasoned gardeners alike to make our world a greener place.

Thank you so much to STIHL for so generously donating a hedge trimmer to be auctioned. More than R7 000 was raised for early childhood education by the auction items and we are so grateful for the incredible support!

PMB Chamber of Business award!

PMB Chamber of Business award!

We are so proud of our amazing team! We were awarded Runner Up for the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business Social Entrepreneur of the Year at the PCB Banquet tonight!

Thank you, PMB business, for your amazing support. It is an enormous honour to be recognised for our financial integrity, sustainability and growth.

We’re going places!

We’re going places!

The newest addition to our organisation, a 7 seater VW Caddy, will help us to drive Early Childhood Education even further. Thank you to the amazing donors that have made the purchase possible.

Zimbabwe training – who learnt more?

Zimbabwe training – who learnt more?

When our trainers run Waste 2 Toys workshops, it is not just the delegates that learn new things. During our trip to Zimbabwe this week to run workshops in Gwanda and Nyanga, we learnt that the average Zimbabwean people have an amazing attitude to life and an incredible resilience despite many hardships. We learnt that there are ECD educators that are prepared to leave home at 2am to travel to workshops. We learnt that fuel queues and food shortages do not affect the hospitality and welcome that you receive. And we learnt that “Don’t worry, we’ll make a plan” is how most people react when things don’t go as planned.

Thank you, Willie Dhlandhlara, the Solon Foundation and The Emirates Airline Foundation, for giving us the opportunity to learn so much this week. We hope that the 90 delegates, and the 3 649 children they work with, will benefit from what we taught too.