NPO puts health of young learners first
With support from its partners, the Zero2Five Trust helped ensure that more than 5 000 young learners could return safely to school on Monday.
THE Zero2Five Trust supplied 150 early childhood development (ECD) supervisors with personal protective equipment (PPE) so that when the ECD Centres opened on Monday, 3 August, they were equipped to protect themselves and the children.
“It has been over four months since the schools and ECDCs in South Africa closed their doors,” said the Zero2Five CEO, Julika Falconer.
“These centres, commonly known as crèches, offer vital nutrition and early learning programmes for South Africa’s children.
“The centres fall under the Department of Social Development and need to adhere to the guidelines stipulated in the standard operating procedures issued by the Department of Social Development on 23 June 2020.”
With a long list of resources required to re-open, including PPEs amounting to not less than R 3 000 per centre, many ECD supervisors across the country are facing temporary or permanent closure of their centres.
Their main income is based on school fees, that range between R50 and R400 monthly, depending on the area and age of the child.
“Many centres are operating with no more than 60 per cent of parents able to pay such fees and the last month fees were paid was in March. It goes without saying that current finances in the widely informal ECD sector do not allow the purchase of the long PPE list necessary to ensure a safe environment for children and caretakers alike,” said Falconer.
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The Kloof-based Zero2Five has more than 400 unfunded ECD Centres throughout KwaZulu-Natal on its nutrition, play and education programmes. Falconer said that none of these received government support during the Covid-19 lockdown.
“We asked our regular donors and supporters for help and started a PPE for ECD campaign. In the past two months, PPE items and funds were raised to safely open up 150 ECD Centres on Monday, 3 August,” she said. “We had a great response as everyone now has an idea of how expensive all these hygiene products are.”
“Our longstanding partner, Marriott Asset Management, allowed us to allocate existing funding to this crisis. Chemlog came on board with a huge donation of hand sanitisers and cleaning products. The Willowton Group contributed hand towels and thousands of soap bars as part of our WASH campaign and extra funding came in from Durban’s Victor Daitz Foundation, PatAcc Accounting and Goodwill and Growth for Africa (GAGA).
“Illovo Africa made a massive contribution with printing and laminating Covid-19 info materials in Zulu and Xhosa for 200 centres and brochures for children to take home,” said Falconer.
The collaboration ensured that more than 5 000 children could return to regular meals and early learning programmes.
To support the Zero2Five’s ongoing projects, visit www.zero2five.org.za, email julika@zero2five.org.za or contact Julika on 082 533 3132.
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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.
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