Early Childhood Education in South Africa

Our aim is not only to foster literacy, but also to promote and encourage the creativity and whole brained thinking that leads to all great, world-changing ideas.

Pre-school children in the townships of Cape Town are greatly disadvantaged in many ways.  If they are lucky, they have homes where, even though living in poverty, they are surrounded with loving nurturing adults who care for them deeply. For most of these children, however, their  access to books and reading is minimal and furthermore, their home language is Xhosa and they have limited exposure to English. This means that they miss out on those first crucial years where the brain develops and sets the foundation for future learning and optimal development.

Thirdly, Ikamva Labantu has partnered with an organisation, Humanwrit.es to address this issue.  Humanwrit.es produces notebooks called Writables For each Writable sold, 10 workbooks are donated to pre-school children. These books are specially designed for the youngest members of the community. The aim is to instill a passion for reading and learning during their earliest years. In May 2013, the workbooks from the first edition of the Writable were donated to 20 000 children in over 200 ECD centres that form part of the Ithemba Labantwana community forum, operated under the umbrella of Ikamva Labantu.

Your support of this project will enable us to supply much needed resources to pre-schools in the Cape Town townships. These will enable teachers to stimulate children and provide them with the necessary language development skills to learn effectively and perform better at school.

See the heartwarming  video of Ikamva Labantu children receiving Humanwrit.es workbooks on http://humanwrit.es/giving-back/