WELCOME:
More than 100 children from Dona Tamana Early Childhood Development Centre in Khayelitsha welcome mayor Patricia de Lille in song before she donated toys to them yesterday.
JOY was etched on the faces of more than 100 children from a Khayelitsha educare centre that hosted a visitor with a special delivery.
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille visited the school to donate a bag full of toys following a special appeal she made to the city’s residents in December last year to donate their unused toys.
Dora Tamana Early Childhood Development Centre owner Nobuntu Sohaba said she was delighted with the donation, which would help the children in her care who ranged in age from 6 months to 6 years.
The donation was part of the Play It Forward initiative, a social media-driven campaign that urged residents to donate toys in good condition to various centres across the city.
De Lille said during December, donation boxes were placed in all ECD centres at all city libraries until January 31. More than 100 bags filled with toys were received from the public. The toys have been distributed to the 17 libraries and 32 city-owned ECD centres across the Cape Town.
“A strong educational foundation is one of most important investments that we can make in building stronger societies, and it takes a village to raise a child,” said De Lille.
For the next three years, said De Lille, the city had budgeted more than R14 billion for these centres.
As many as 564 ECD centres that required materials to enable statutory registration and compliance were trained, and 58 ECD forums were trained to enable communities to take part in childhood development.
“We also regularly ensure that city health staff are on site to check the immunisation status of the children, which includes Vitamin A and de-worming,” said De Lille.
Like Dora Tamara Early Childhood Development Centre, others also have a food gardens that are maintained by community members and whose harvests feed the children to ensure all their nutritional needs are being met.