Early Childhood Development
An Early Childhood Development Centre is a facility that offers education and care to children of 0-6 years. These can be Edu-Care centres run in churches, community halls, homes, or even under trees.
PHAKAMISA runs an ECD training programme, based at Pinetown Methodist Church with our workshops providing practical training and hands-on follow-up visits from our trained monitors.
Our students are all from very impoverished communities and have had an inferior education themselves.
Child Minder Course – 6 months training for educators teaching children from 0-3 years old
Edu-Care Course – 1-year training for educators teaching children from 3-6 years old.
Supervisor course – is a workshop for individuals owning ECD centres or those who have an interest in opening those centres. They must have done the Childminder and Edu-care courses. It is for the running of their centres and is an 8 week workshop.
Phakamisa courses cover all the necessary concepts required to provide a sound foundation for formal education. Rhythm, rhyme, music, games, story telling, creative play, active learning, respect & care, are integral parts of the courses. Manufactured equipment – such as storybooks, jigsaws, puzzles, games, and toys – are too expensive for most Educare Centres unless they have been fortunate enough to receive donations of second-hand items at PHAKAMISA. So students learn how to create teaching aids, games, puzzles and musical instruments from waste. We collect and use cereal packets, boxes, plastic cartons, bottles, etc, to make them.
Training
Over the past 20 years we have trained over 4,000 Educare teachers. 10,000 children benefit directly from our Educare programme. These children would otherwise not be adequately prepared for formal education.
Each year we train 250 people working in Educare Centres
Wandering Teachers
PHAKAMISA works in poor communities and in the informal settlements where homes are shacks with no access to basic services.
The unofficial AIDS infection rate in these areas is 1 in 2. AIDS continues to have a devastating effect on the whole social system.
PHAKAMISA employs 3 Wandering Teachers (Phakamisa trained) who provide a free education to children living in informal settlements. These children receive a sound education and loving care.
‘Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.’
Nelson Mandela
Phakamisa trains 250 educare teachers yearly, enabling 10,000 children to receive a sound pre-school education.
Phakamisa’s wandering teachers provide a free pre-school education to children who live in poverty.
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