Women pushing limits for pre-school children
TWO respected women in the fields of science and technology have walked away from promising careers in the private sector to turn around the fortunes of South Africa’s pre-school children.
Together, Candice Potgieter and Wallis Watt serve at the helm of nonprofit organisation The Unlimited Child, which has ensured that a million underprivileged children received the gift of education through early childhood development (ECD) programmes.
In addition they have assisted and upskilled more than 7 800 ECD practitioners, catapulting many women from their roles as childminders into entrepreneurs heading up ECD centres.
Watt was the manager of a software technology company when she left to join The Unlimited Child.
“I have a huge passion for growing and developing people and if I want to do that it has to start right at the beginning, which is early childhood development.”
She said the first six years of a child’s life were crucial to unlocking their potential and childminding facilities without any programmes did nothing to encourage the development of their brains and neural pathways.
Established in 2008, The Unlimited Child has also enabled 3 200 ECD centres, and with their expansion into parts of Lesotho and Zimbabwe, they aim to reach 100 000 ECD centres in the next five years.
Watt, who serves as the chairperson of The Unlimited Child, says her role is looking at longer term strategies to ensure that no child is left behind and that they are all school ready.
“We still have a long way to go but it’s very heart-warming to know we are making some impact.”
She said she believed that while living in this country we all have to be responsible for its future and not just be here as spectators.
Watt said it was almost inevitable that she would end up at The Unlimited Child, as her father was the founder and her family was invested in making the programme a success.
For 38-year-old Potgieter, the journey to becoming the CEO of The Unlimited Child took a meandering path. She graduated with degrees in applied physics and applied maths.
After completing her postgraduate studies she was selected to be part of the national astrophysics and space science programme at UCT and was then chosen to be a Mandela Washington Fellow to study management and social entrepreneurship in the US.
But instead of pursuing a career in science, Potgieter listened to her heart and returned home to KZN where she eventually joined The Unlimited Child to create possibilities for others.
One of her passions is to identify ways in which non-profits can grow.
“I wish I had gone to business school early in life, but science gives you the ability to solve problems,” she said.
She said the work they did in ECD facilities was not to establish them, but to “unlock the potential that was already there” and help childminders develop into micro entrepreneurs, opening up other opportunities for them while benefiting children.
At least a million children have already benefited from their work but with 4.2 million children still without access to ECD, Potgieter said she believed the best was still to come.