Capacity Building and Skills Training
Creating capable and engaged ECD carers.
Empowering the ECD Carers
The ECD centres are run by women from the community, most who have not had the opportunity to access any formal training in early childhood development. A vital building block of our work is therefore empowering the women, or ECD carers, so that they have the skills to provide the nurturing care, positive interaction, healthy routines and guidance needed for meaningful social, emotional and cognitive learning.
What we do
Samara runs a series of workshops on child development and all the elements that are needed to support children with their healthy and holistic growth. The emphasis is on practical learning and the creation of a well-structured ECD programme that works within their context and meets the needs of the children.
Throughout this time the ECD carers are also given mentoring support, with site visits to each individual centre to further support the successful implementation of what they have learnt.
ECD Qualification
Where we can, we also support the ECD carers to go on to attain a qualification in early childhood development. The biggest hinderance in the Eastern Cape is that colleges are few and far inbetween and the travelling costs to attend any qualifying courses is prohibitive. We therefore support them with the transport costs to attend the monthly classes over a year.