A creche has commended the support of students from the London School of Business for improving its operations.
Ethel Mngomezulu Lebeloane, founder of Themba Lethu Community Creche, said this at a feedback session for the students and the local businesses that helped the creche during their one-week excursion in the country as part of their MBA assignment.
The programme which has been running for three years has the students mentoring small and micro enterprises with business skills to make them profitable and sustainable.
Lebeloane said her creche, which struggled along since inception years ago, has evolved into a notable enterprise after she acquired entrepreneurial skills from the students who visited last year. “We used to operate from hand to mouth and used only our social skills to keep the operations afloat. The skills I gained from them [students] helped me with marketing, budgeting, balancing the books at the end of the month, paying the teachers accordingly and to plan for inflation impacting our operations,” she said.
Lebeloane said the injection of a business approach to their operations also improved the creche’s image among parents and the community resulting in the enrolment of children and teachers almost doubling from 80 to 125 and from four to six from last year to the current year respectively. She added that as a result of improved customer satisfaction and increased interest for enrolment, they were considering expanding the place.
She said they will forever be indebted to the students and their local partners, Khavo Travel and Tourism and Reciprocity, a marketing and social development agency, for elevating the status and profitability of local small businesses.
The centre relies on a grant from the Department of Social Development and fees from affording parents. Lebeloane hopes to diversify the creche’s resource base through marketing skills she has acquired to guarantee operational sustainability.
Details: Themba Lethu Community Creche; 084 624 2425.
