EKUKHANYENI RELIEF PROJECT
QUARTER 4 REPORT
Period covered by this report: / October-November-December 2015 / Date of Report: / 11-01-2016
Prepared For: / AOS
ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN / 2016 First Quarter
ACTIVITIES TO BE UNDERTAKEN
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (ECD) PROGRAMME
a. / Our ECD Centre network continued to remain at 16 and all Centres successfully implemented the early education programme on a daily basis with the children. Total number of children registered at the ECD Centres to date was 1116 (down from 1133 in Quarter 3 – a trend which is normal for the end of year).
A response from the Department of Social Development (DSD) in regards to our 2015 document submission for the National Child Protection Register (NCPR) to verify all ECDC staff are suitable to work with children, per government regulations, was received with a positive outcome.
Early Education / Submit for new 2016 ECDC staff.
b. / Our Early Education programme has continued to roll out smoothly each month with caregiver teachers doing well and staying highly motivated.
Total Grade R, Action Kids to date enrolled - 263
Total Grade 00, Vukani Kids to date enrolled - 313
Due to programme budget cuts, Ekukhanyeni will only have the financial capacity to continue with the Grade R Action Kids programme at ECDs and will no longer be able to provide the Grade 00 Vukani Kids early education programme. This decision was undertaken in order to continue support at all ECDCs and not disband partnership with only selected Centres and also allows Principals more time to put an action plan into place regarding their future sustainability. This decision also supports our focus on Grade R specialization with our upcoming ETDP SETA Accreditation for ECD Level 4 training. / Curricula roll-out to commence 2 February 2016.
c. / Weekly and Monthly Achiever Awards to recognise the children and their progress continues and is a great tool of encouragement and support for our little ones. / Continue with award system.
d. / School Readiness Assessments were conducted at the end of November with 16 of our ECDC’s participating and 219 children were assessed. These assessments focused on the cognitive based skills of the children, which are skills guided by a caregiver teacher. A large improvement was made in regard to shapes and colours whereas this area was previously observed as a weak area in the last assessment. Improvements in this regard show that intervention in this area proved successful. Number recognition arose as the area of weakness during this assessment and will be addressed for 2017. Overall, 79% of our children are prepared for Grade 1. This number was unfortunately lower than we had hoped for, however, the increase of teacher turn-around throughout the year was directly correlated to having an effect on the children’s ability to reach their full academic potential. / Assist caregiver teachers at Teacher Training with new tools and techniques to improve number recognition.
Adult Upskilling
e.
f. / Teacher Training sessions were conducted by our ECD Programme Head with one session for quarter 3 (29 October). ECD Facilitators continue to prepare and facilitate topics at Teacher Training; Nhlanhla facilitated for October and is confident in her presentation skills as well as her knowledge of the content presented.
31 Grade R and Grade 00 teachers participated in Teacher Training and all did well overall with the monthly roll-out for our early education curricula. Caregiver teachers are continuing with their monthly ‘teacher homework’ and incorporating their skills and knowledge into the Daily Programme with the children. Support each month through mentorship and coaching also continued and caregiver teachers responded well to this encouragement.
Quarterly Incentive Prize Giving, Best Teacher of the Term and Best Teacher of the Year Awards were held on 27 November at an outdoor venue in Ruimsig. AOS shared in our celebrations and caregiver teachers were elated to spend the afternoon together. Aimee Mcnamara also shared a loving motivational speech that was very much appreciated as these gestures of kindness truly motivate our caregiver teachers. We were very excited to congratulate this years’ winners as the recipients came from our “newer” ECDCs that that have not been as strong in previous years. This in itself was an accomplishment as caregiver teachers could observe how hard work, dedication, and a positive attitude can propel them into success.
AK Teacher of the Year recipients included: Paulinah Modeibedi from Tswelopele ECDC (1st Place); Elisa Hlaoli from Nkosinathi ECDC (2nd Place); and Avela Mbombane from Alpha ECDC (3rd Place). VK Teacher of the Year recipients included Bonakele Mtambo from Tswelopele ECDC (1st Place); Felicia Hlongwane from Rabeh ECDC (2nd Place); Thandeka Mbatha from Nkosinathi ECDC (3rd Place). / Continue Monthly Teacher Training and weekly mentorship/coaching of the caregivers by our ECD Facilitators (Nhlanhla and Annah).
N/A
g.
h.
i.
j. / ETDP SETA accredited Facilitator Training commenced on 14-18 September for ECD Facilitator Nhlanhla and Ikwezi Principal Wendy Mtebele to prepare them for our ETDP SETA accredited Level 4 courses, which will roll out in 2016. Both have been found competent and we await their official Statement of Results which are anticipated for quarter 1 2016. ECD Facilitator, Annah, will participate in the Facilitator course in 2016.
Administrative Upskilling for ECD Facilitators continued each quarter for Nhlanhla and Annah. They have worked hard this year to become more fluent with their computer skills. One of their new duties included the coordinating the stock register data capturing required by our partner Joint Aid Management South Africa (JAMSA) who supplies nutritional porridge for our children. Nhlanhla and Annah are now upskilled and empowered to do electronic data capture and reports. They are also doing well with Trello, our online organizational/project coordination system.
Recognition of baby caregivers and cooks at each of our partner ECDCs was celebrated as Ekukhanyeni recognized a need for all ECDC staff to be recognized in some way. Baby caregivers and cooks do not play a direct role in our early education programmes, however, they play an integral role in the support of our littlest ones. Certificates of appreciation and chocolates were shared on 1 December and this token of appreciation was so warmly welcomed and all of the baby caregivers and cooks were beaming with delight.
ECD Centre Development
Our collaboration with the City of Johannesburg Region G’s Environmental Health (EH) Unit continues and our ECDCs have been doing a fantastic job keeping up with the stringent standards that are upon them. Ashendri Reddy, Environmental Health Practitioner at the Department of Environmental Health, joined us at our Principal Forum meeting in November to congratulate Ekukhanyeni and our partner ECDCs on job well done for all of the improvements made in 2015. Ms. Reddy will no longer be our contact point for 2016 as she has taken another position, however, we look forward to a continued partnership with the Department of Health to assist our ECDCs to become compliant. 6 of our ECDCs obtained their Public Health Permits and we will aid Cabukani, Stardom, and Vega with their permits in quarter 1 2016 as they are all in the final stages of compliance. As soon as centers Lesedi, Life Is About Love, Nkosinathi and Skhulile have completed building in brick and requirements met, we will further assist these ECDCs with obtaining their Public Health Permits. / Follow up on Statement of Results for Wendy & Nhlanhla.
Continue with electronic stock register data capturing and reporting for JAMSA.
N/A.
Assist Cabukani, Stardom, Ikwezi, Lesedi, and Vega ECD Centres with Public Health Permits.
Assist Alpha, Lesedi, Life is About Love, Nkosinathi, Tswelopele, Skhulile with building.
k. / An Emergency Evacuation Plan (EEP) is required for ECDCs to be compliant with Disaster Management; therefore ERP has continued with interventions with our ECDCs to assist them to become compliant in this regard. Emfundisweni, Faith, and Rabeh have already successfully completed their EEPs and Ekukhanyeni will go forward to assist all other ECDCs with this requirement. / Assist ECDCs with Emergency Evacuation Plans.
Sustainability Plans: ETDP SETA Accreditation for ECD Level 4
l. / Our ECD Level 4 documents were submitted to the ETDP SETA in October for accreditation. We were informed at the time of submission that the ETDP SETA had closed the window for accepting applications that would be reviewed for 2015. Therefore our documents will undergo a desktop review in the beginning of quarter 1 2016 at which time a site visit will be scheduled. In March the committee will then re-open their window for accepting applications for review and the final results of our application are anticipated for April. Upon a successful outcome, our ECD Level 4 activities will begin in June 2016. / Prepare for site visit with ETDP SETA.
m.
n. / Ikwezi Principal Wendy Mtebele underwent ETDP SETA accredited Assessor training on 28-29 September, quarter 3, to assist her with the capability of Assessing our learning material. Wendy submitted her Portfolio of Evidence (POE) at the end of October and was found competent. We await her official Statement of Results which are anticipated for quarter 1 2016 and then an application for her official registration as a Constituent Assessor with the ETDP SETA can be submitted.
ETDP SETA accredited Moderator Training commenced on 28-29 November for Ikwezi Principal Wendy Mtebele to prepare her with the capacity to Moderate learner material for our ETDP SETA accredited Level 4 Course. Wendy is currently preparing her Portfolio of Evidence (POE) for submission which will be processed in December. Wendy will initially perform Moderator duties under the guidance of our more experienced Moderator so that she can gain the hands-on experience in this regard. / Follow-up on Statement of Results and submit Constituent Assessor application.
Follow up on Statement of Results.
Sustainability Plans: Business Model
o. / Please refer to page 5, point b. for ECD Business Model progress. The business model for the ECD programme will be centred around the ECD Level 4 Training Service Provision.
FOOD SECURITY THROUGH PERMACULTURE PROGRAMME
Sustainability Plans: M&E Framework, Mobile Monitoring for Impact Mapping
a. / Despite challenges through the year with our data collection platform, we have been working with Mobenzi to create a more usable monitoring platform that will more effectively collect our data and generate our required reports. This is now completed and we will be able to roll out our mobile monitoring in quarter 1 2016.
Sustainability Plans: Business Model / Roll out of revised monitoring system.
b. / Our Business Model was completed with the help of Service provider and partner UBUNTU Business Consulting (UBC). The business model centred around Ekukhanyeni’s ECD and Food Security training and consulting activities to generate an income for the organization. A final report was provided to Ekukhanyeni by UBC.
Our website re-vamp has also taken off with assistance from our international volunteer, Patrick, and our framework has been set so that upon completion of our new content, it can be put into place for finalization. Our target date to make our new website live will be in quarter 1 2016. / Begin with Business Model action plans and new website to go live in quarter 1 2016.
Sustainability Plans: Training Service Provision
c. / Continued discussions were held with our partners, the WITS Siyakhana Initiative (WSI) and UBC regarding potential collaboration to implement income generation opportunities with a variety of potential clients. Our discussions with Dis-Chem Foundation continued to slowly progress and we conducted a site –analysis and submitted a report on our findings and suggestions. Dis-Chem Foundation shared feelings of discouragement with the findings as it showed need for more assistance than they originally envisioned in order to boost their project to become a sustainable and income generating food garden. However, they accepted to move forward with a few of our recommendations. WSI would project manage these aspects. We are hoping that these infrastructural developments to the garden would lead to Dis-Chem accepting our training proposals which would be the next logical step for the development of their food garden space.
Discussions with Food and Trees for Africa (FTFA) were held and coordination for 50 learners to participate in our 12Day AgriSETA accredited workshop were in the process of being coordinated. Unfortunately FTFA sponsors were not able to commit to the training for this year and our aim is to coordinate for 300 learners in 2016. This will assist us greatly with provision of funds for our Food Security programme.
Our tripartite Service Level Agreement (SLA) to formalise the partnership agreement amongst WITS Siyakhana Initiative, UBC, and ERP has been signed by all parties and we await the final version to be distributed by WITS Enterprise. / Liaise with WSI to monitor training needs if any.
Follow up with FTFA for Training Service Provision
Upskilling and Capacitation Training Trainers
d. / Our newly promoted lead Facilitator and Assessor, Serame Mokhati, received his Constituent Assessor Accreditation with AgriSETA and conducted his first assessments in our 12Day Permaculture AgriSETA accredited workshop held on 9-24 November. Champion Tutors Sihle Msimango and Lucky Sibisi are participating in Train-the-Trainer sessions 3 days per week and continue to do a fantastic job tutoring on our workshops. Sihle and Lucky also participated in an ETDP SETA accredited Facilator Training on 14-18 September and both were found competent. We await their official Statement of Results which are anticipated for quarter 1 2016. / 3x weekly Train-the-Trainer sessions. Follow up on Statement of Results.