Hope Worldwide SA recently launched the Caregiver Learning Through Play (CLTP) 2.0 programme, a national initiative designed to empower caregivers with tools to stimulate children’s development through play, nutrition, and responsive parenting.

Speaking at the launch, held at the Alex Safe Hub on November 14, Nkhensani Mabunda, senior programmes manager, emphasised that play is not a distraction from learning, but its foundation. “Children learn best when they are playing, so, incorporating that in their day-to-day activities makes it easier for them to learn. The main thing to understand is that from the age 0–6, that is when their brain development is at peak. 90% of what we have now as adults was developed between the ages of 0–6.”

Mabunda illustrated how everyday routines can become learning opportunities. “When you are cooking and ask a child to fetch a tomato, then ask what colour it is, they respond: ‘red.’ That is learning through play, without it feeling like a lesson.”

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The programme recognises that most South African children do not attend early learning centres. Their first educators are parents and caregivers at home. CLTP 2.0 equips them to turn ordinary activities into opportunities for stimulation.

As Dr Marc Aguirre, country director of Hope Worldwide SA explains: “It is really about helping parents, who are already doing a fantastic job, understand their important role, and how they can, through responsive parenting, really meet the needs of their children in a loving, empathetic, and responsive way.”

\According to Mabunda, the programme, funded by the Lego Foundation, trained more than 500 000 caregivers nationwide during its first four years.

Caregivers later requested more support around nutrition and child development, necessitating the launch of CLTP 2.0. “In CLTP 2.0 we added these elements of health and nutrition, emergent literacy, and practical resources.”

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The programme also helps caregivers identify developmental delays using the Road to Health booklet, which outlines milestones for each age.

Additionally, Mabunda explained that caregivers will also receive wordless picture books, accessible even to those who cannot read, and posters on nutrition and play. She said this is particularly important, because by age five, children should have been exposed to at least 100 books.

While the first phase of CLTP had caregivers attending two consecutive sessions, Mabunda said CLTP 2.0 sessions are more intensive than before. Caregivers will attend three consecutive days of training, followed by six months of reinforcement messages.

Over the next three years, CLTP 2.0 aims to reach 150 000 caregivers.

Caregivers who wish to become part of the programme can send a WhatsApp message to 081 520 7112 or visit their website.

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