One woman could no longer stand by and watch the children suffering. Julia Grey went to see what her efforts produced
It all started because Theresa Mkhwanazi couldn’t carry on just witnessing the daily abuse that children face in the miserable squalor of Cato Manor, an informal settlement packed on the hillslopes of Durban.
Mkhwanazi was too late to save Siyabonga, a child who drowned in a pit toilet. She couldn’t undo the pain the three raped children went through either, although she served as a witness in their court cases. But when she witnessed a fourth child-rape, Mkhwanazi decided she had to do something to protect the most vulnerable in the harsh settlement.
“I started out with 15 children, who I accommodated in a room in my shack,” says Mkhwanazi. But with her community’s support, Mkhwanazi’s creche moved from the shack into a brightly coloured building, complete with a playground. This early childhood development (ECD) school, appropriately named Sikhulilu – “We have grown” – has become an oasis of learning and care in the midst of poverty’s chaos.
Mkhwanazi’s personal growth has paralleled the expansion of her enterprise. “I only had schooling up to Standard 6”, she says, “but I’m now right up to university level.”
Mkhwanazi attributes much of her success to the training provided by a KwaZulu-Natal-based NGO called Tree. Tree offers training to ECD practitioners from level 1 through to 4, and the qualifications are accredited by Unisa.
The difference between being a childminder and a qualified educator is clear to Mkhwanazi, whose first experience of looking after children was as a nanny. “I am assessing the children as we deal with different skills – whether they’re physical, emotional or intellectual. Assessing attitudes is also important because I am involved in socialising the child.”
Through the eyes of a trained practitioner like Mkhwanazi, the educational value of apparently meaningless play is clear. Playing with water or sand gives the child a tactile experience of scientific concepts like volume, capacity and gravity. Climbing and other physical activities develop the child’s understanding of their bodies in space – an exercise in learning how everything exists in relation to other things. It is through an understanding of these relationships that children base a big educational step they will take in the future: deciphering symbols on the printed page.
Fantasy play is equally important for children’s development, giving them the space to discover their own imaginations. Thanks to the training from Tree, Mkhwanazi has been able to create a play-play living room, complete with mini-chairs, a mini-coffee table and a mini-TV – all out of cardboard boxes. Tree has developed a technique that is one up on conventional papier machŽ: called appropriate paper technology, the finished item is very sturdy and best of all, it’s an inexpensive way of kitting out a play area – invaluable in an environment characterised by lack and need.
Mkhwanazi’s commitment to her children goes beyond the confines of the school, and she follows up on the progress of her ex-students as they enter primary school. She also emphasises that “I don’t want my knowledge to be mine only – I am happy to share it. Everybody here in Cato Manor who wants to know more consults me. ECD is me.”
But the 12-hour day that Mkhwanazi and the three other teachers put in yields little in the way of income: the R50 the parents pay each month is mainly used providing food, and resources like crayons and paper, for the children Says Mkhwanazi, “Sometimes we have salaries and take home R300, and sometimes we don’t.”
The real reward is not the paycheque. As Mkhwanazi puts it, “When I see a child progress, I feel all right. I can’t live without a child beside me.”
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, December 2001.