Methodology

Mission and Objectives

The goal of this project was to support Early Childhood Development in Monwabisi Park through documenting current conditions and developing an Emthonjeni Programme.

The project was broken down into the following objectives:

• Work with project partners and key stakeholders to refine objectives and working procedures
• Identify current centre-based and home-based ECD practices
• Determine the needs for further ECD programmes in Monwabisi Park and the services that are required to fulfil these needs
• Design an Emthonjeni Pilot site based on the VPUU’s Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme
• Design an Emthonjeni Programme that can be replicated in other communities

Refine Objectives and Working Procedures

With our project sponsors, we developed a four stage process to guide our team in reaching our objectives:

Centre Based ECD Practices

To understand current centre-based ECD practices, we visited each of the eight crèches in Monwabisi Park.  At each crèche, we observed the facilities and interacted with children as well as conducted interviews with the crèche principals and instructors.  Most of the interviews were conducted in Xhosa with translations done by our co-researchers and Mdebuka Mthwazi, Sikhula Sonke’s Programme Manager.  In these interviews, we collected information such as the number of students, how much it costs to attend the crèche, and what concerns crèche principals had in running their crèches. This helped us gain a better understanding of the ECD being administered in formal ECD centres.

Home Based ECD Practices

We visited several families whose children were currently not attending a crèche.  At each shack, we interviewed the guardian in Xhosa with the help of our co-researchers and Mdebuka.  We asked parents why their children were not attending a crèche and if the children were had opportunities to play with any toys and books.  We also observed home-based outreach work in Enkanini, another informal settlement in Khayelitsha, with the Family and Community Motivators from Sikhula Sonke.  This improved our understanding of what type of stimulation children were getting at home and would later help us broaden our understanding of how children can be stimulated outside of an ECD centre.

Assets, Needs and Desires for ECD in Monwabisi Park

With the help of Sikhula Sonke, we led a discussion about community awareness regarding ECD with the Monwabisi Park ECD forum.  The ECD forum consists of crèche owners and representatives from the Safe Node Area Committee (SNAC), a local leadership group that works with the VPUU on community redevelopment.  .  The goal of this meeting was to start a conversation about outreach between the ECD stakeholders and the community of Monwabisi Park.  In addition to our observations, we analysed three surveys about ECD in Khayelitsha and Monwabisi Park. The data from the three surveys was compared with our observation from Monwabisi Park to produce a well-rounded picture of available ECD in the settlement.

Emthonjeni Programme and Pilot Site

After reviewing all of the observations we made in Monwabisi Park, refining the ideas of our sponsors, and considering the input from other ECD organizations, we developed a vision for an Emthonjeni outreach programme. We also designed a pilot Emthonjeni site that would fit into designs the VPUU is developing for a pilot strip in C section.  We created a digital model using Computer Aided Design (CAD) as well as a three dimensional physical model of the existing site based upon measurements we made at the actual tap location.

We presented our ideas for the overall Emthonjeni outreach programme as well as our pilot Emthonjeni site to a group of stakeholders including representatives from Sikhula Sonke, the VPUU, the Department of Social Development, the Department of Education, and the Monwabisi Park ECD forum.  We made revisions to our ideas based upon feedback given at this presentation and compiled them into a detailed proposal for our sponsors, as well as a funding proposal for potential donors.