SoundStart: Audio Learning for ECD in South Africa

Although the SoundStart initiative isn’t yet fully funded, we’re launching it early in the New Year. Given the immense need, our key partners GROW Educare Centres and Wiggle and Rhyme (the main content provider) are just as anxious as we are to get SoundStart up and running.

The first 8 township pre-schools have been identified in Cape Town that will receive our solar-powered Lifeplayer MP3 units. Most high-density townships are crime hotspot areas making preschools with outside areas either small or non-existent. Priority is being given to those centres which are under-resourced, over-crowded, have limited outside play areas and untrained teachers. Preschool teacher training facilities have closed in South Africa and there is little government oversight at this level as well. Therefore, many of the teachers are not formally trained and oftentimes other classroom support many be kind-hearted local women who want to help out.

These are also pre-schools which are convenient for working parents to drop their children off in the mornings and collect them in the afternoon. Parents who are mainly domestic workers, day laborers or petty traders, depend public transport such as trains, buses and mini-bus taxis to get to work and often have to leave as early as 0600 to get to work on time. Children might only be collected again at 6:00 p.m. This makes for long days for learners, teachers and caregivers alike.

The Lifeplayers will be loaded with pedigocially sound original music content created by South African musicologists at Wriggle and Rhyme. Music and acitivity lessons will be played in the mornings. The Lifeplayer will play engaging stories  in the afternoons to give teachers and caregivers a much earned break. As many of the children are from immigrant families, content is largely in English as English is the common language.

By the time of our next update, SoundStart will have officially launched and we’ll have a lot to share!