Human Sciences Research Council:
Shirin Motala (EPD) and Steven Masvaure (EPD).
Save the Children South Africa Representatives:
Canny Geyer (Programme Director), Suzanne Wessels (Head of MEAL)
Mari Van Der Merwe (ECCD Programme Manager) and Gail Richards (Wentworth ECD Forum Facilitator).
PRESENTATIONS:
Date: 30 October
Time: 12:00 – 15:00
Venue: VCRs, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban
The HSRC seminar series is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The views and opinions expressed therein as well as findings and statements of the seminar series do not necessarily represent the views of DST.
Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) has over the past decade come to the forefront as governments, policy makers and NGOs alike, globally and in South Africa, begin to recognise the importance and need for promoting early childhood education and care interventions in addressing learning and developmental gaps, especially amongst the poor.
Save the Children South Africa (SCSA) has been extensively involved over the past fifteen years in the early childhood development sector in KwaZulu-Natal, specifically supporting ECD service providers through community based ECD development forums.
Community forums serve to improve the quality of life of people in their communities through serving as catalysts, collaborators and facilitators for identifying problems and collectively developing solutions to address these problems (Sachs, 2003). Importantly, they give effect to the constitutional imperative of participatory democracy by enabling active citizenship.
In 2015 the HSRC finalised a review of SCSA’s ECD Forums intervention in selected sites in KwaZulu-Natal to assess the effectiveness of the intervention in enhancing access to quality centre based ECD for young children. . The study found that SCSA supported ECD Forums extensively leveraged in kind and monetary support for ECD Centres and their staff, fostered social cohesion and solidarity amongst forum members, mobilized effective engagement with key government stakeholders, provided a platform for rapidly diffusing good practices and innovation and has demonstrated potential for advancing community development and empowerment. The findings provide persuasive evidence of how SCSA has harnessed the power of collective action towards enhancing the positive outcomes for young children, living in compromised environments in the context of scarce resources.
The seminar may be attended in Pretoria, Cape Town or Durban
RSVP by 29 September 2015 Cape Town : HSRC, 12th Floor, Plein Park Building (Opposite Revenue Office), Plein Street, Cape Town. Contact Jean Witten, Tel (021) 4668004, Fax (021) 461 0299, or JWitten@hsrc.ac.za;
Durban : First floor HSRC board room, 750 Francois Road, Ntuthuko Junction, Pods 5 and 6, Cato Manor, Contact Ridhwaan Khan, Tel (031) 242 5400, cell: 083 788 2786 or RKhan@hsrc.ac.za ;
Pretoria : HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria. Arlene Grossberg, Tel: (012) 302 2811, e-mail: acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za , or Happy Solomon, HSolomon@hsrc.ac.za, Tel: 012 302 2811