Educate and Empower Children in South Africa

Children with disabilities are one of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable populations in South African townships. These children are usually secluded from the mainstream society and due to limited resources in the marginalized communities, they are often ignored. Additionally, there is a lot of stigma attached to disability in the townships, making it a challenge to help these children.

Angel is one of those children living with a disability in South Africa. When Angel’s mother brought her to Afrika TIkkun’s Early Childhood Development Program in Orange Farm township, she was in complete denial of her daughter’s condition. Angel was physically challenged. She could not walk, talk or feed herself when she was admitted into our Center. After some assessments and through working with the center’s Empowerment Program for Children with Disabilities and their Families and the social worker, Angel’s mother finally acknowledged her daughter’s situation and together we were able to help Angel progress.

Today, Angel is 4 years old and has shown a lot of improvement. Angel’s mother is also now involved in our Empowerment Program for Children with Disabilities and their Families, raising awareness for the rights of children living with disability.

Angel’s story is one example of how Afrika Tikkun’s Early Childhood Development Program is augmented by various supplementary services, ensuring holistic development of our beneficiaires. These services includes:

• Primary Healthcare
• Nutritional and Food Security Services
• Psychological/Psychosocial services
• Empowerment Program for Children with Disabilities and Their Families

We believe that this comprehensive approach is the most effective way to address the barriers that impedes the development of our youth. Afrika Tikkun sees potential in every child. Through our Early Childhood Development Program and other support services, we are able to provide early intervention in addressing the various issues that affects the progress of our beneficiaries.

Afrika Tikkun’s five Early Childhood Development Centers has provided high quality education to 1,100 disadvantaged preschool children. Each center is staffed with qualified teachers and teaching assistants who receive regular training and professional development on the Early Childhood Education Curriculum. The centers are well equipped with resources to implement the curriculum and are led by our national subject matter expert who ensures quality and consistency across all our programs.

We really appreciate your ongoing support in helping us serve kids in the most impoverished communities of South Africa. With your help we aim to increase our outreach so that more children can benefit from our ‘Cradle to Career’ Development Model.

Young Thembinkosi was deprived of oxygen in the womb because of which he was born with a developmental disability – in learning to speak and walk. Initially his mother had no choice but to keep him in doors to protect him from the children who would bully him and the family who did not understand.

Afrika Tikkun’s Early Childhood Development Program, provided a beacon of hope for Thembinkosi and his mother. Our holistic program has given thembinkosi with an opportunity to access an inclusive learning enviornment and quality resources provided by our trained and experienced staff. Thembinkosi is now school ready and the child whose mother once thought would never be able to talk or walk, does both.

We thank you for the progress of Thembinkosi and many other children who grew up lacking cognitive, physical and overall development prior to schooling. Through your contribution and the contribution of many individuals like you, we have been able to provide quality education through our Early Childhood Development Centers to the 1,100 disadvantaged pre-school children.

 Please WATCH THIS VIDEO to meet Thembinkosi!

We are also excited to share with you that Afrika Tikkun has further extended the benefits of our Early Childhood Development facilities to the local community by sharing our educational resources with under-resourced surrounding nursery schools through a “lending” toy library system. Through this system, identified schools have the opportunity to use our toy libraries on specific days and their teachers are provided with training through a mentorship program. Afrika Tikkun believes that collaboration is necessary for a collective impact and through this initiative, we aim at maximizing our impact and contributing towards producing the next generation of productive South African citizens.

We hope that with your continued support, we will be able to further expand our holistic Early Childhood Development Programs and reach out to more deserving children in the most impovershed communties of South Africa.

Thank you once again for your generous contribution!

Links:

• Thembinkhosi Gets Ready for School