PINETOWN resident and Early Childhood Development (ECD) advocate Scilla Edmonds recently gave a presentation to owners and educators from 45 ECD centres in underserved communities at a quarterly workshop organised by The Domino Foundation.

In her almost half-century of being actively involved in stimulating young children to be inquisitive about the world around them, Edmonds has grown in her desire to see her watchword, ‘Be Sustainably Yours’, become a reality for every child, parent, teacher and school.

“Sustainability should be a concept established in a child’s pre-school years,” said the former principal of eco-winning school, The Birches Pre-Primary School, in Sarnia.

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“From the early years, children must be prepared to deal with challenges with confidence, be encouraged to know they have the means to do anything they choose in life.”

She maintains that, from the outset in their education journey, they need to learn the value of money: “That is as much a life-skill as communication, initiative and problem-solving as a prelude to learning to read and write. Budgeting and saving should be taught by parents and grandparents and in the ECDs.”

Edmonds’ aim at the workshop was to encourage the participants to develop these life-skills in their charges and to challenge them to consider participating in a 12-week Early Years Enterprise Challenge initiated and co-developed by Britain’s Teach a Man to Fish and supported by The Saville Foundation.

This programme outlines how schools can include the value of money in the curriculum and start child-run businesses as alternative means of fundraising.

She ended the presentation by challenging everyone present to embrace their critical responsibility to children to include and develop early business skills by starting their own Green Business at ECD level.

Edmonds can be contacted at scillaedmonds@vodamail.co.za.and Domino’s ECD programme at ecd@domino.org.za.

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