Grow ECD works with more than 180 independently owned and managed preschools in developing communities in the Western Cape, KZN and Gauteng. Grow ECD helps these centres provide excellent 5-star Early Childhood Development programmes for their learners and be financially sustainable businesses for their owners and staff who are mostly women.
1. Host a volunteer event on Madiba Day
Grow ECD can connect you with a Grow ECD centre near you in Gauteng, Western Cape or KwaZulu Natal and you can organise and host a child-friendly, fun event for the children, many of whom are from disadvantaged homes. Grow ECD will provide the connection and guidance. Your team will be responsible for arranging and sponsoring the event from start to finish. Plan to have a maximum of seven volunteers as most schools are small and can’t handle more than that. The children are between two and five years old, with between 25 and 90 children in each school.
Please make sure that you sign the volunteer forms and don’t take identifiable photos of the children without written consent from parents or caregivers.
Some event ideas that the kids will love: A reading morning and you could contribute to the school’s library; provide a healthy lunch or snack and teach the kids about healthy food; bring along undecorated cupcakes for the kids to decorate; sponsor an outing; organise a morning of playing games or hire a magician, face painting artist or balloon sculptor to entertain the children.
2. Collection drive
Challenge your business, team or family to collect and donate items to a nearby Grow ECD school. Age-appropriate books (0-5 years old), cleaning items and consumables like handwash, dishwashing soap and wet wipes. Arts and crafts consumables, paper reams, thick crayons, play dough, play-dough shape cutters, water-based paint, paint brushes and glue sticks, all make a big difference. You can visit the preschool to hand over your donation. It gives the centres an opportunity to show you why they are the heart of their communities.
- Fundraising: donate to make a real difference
Organise a Fundraising Challenge in support of one of Grow ECD’s key projects.
· Finding Thabo Literacy Resources (Finding Thabo is an interactive play-based ‘Where’s Wally’ -inspired game designed to stimulate key brain parts and build foundations for lifelong learning. The centre receives a A2 poster kit, Teacher Activity Guidebook and Grow hosts training to show teachers exactly how to use the kit and how to implement it.
R300 per centre, donate here.
· Healthy breakfasts, help us feed 1 500 young children who attend the Grow ECD preschools a healthy breakfast every day. We buy nutritionally fortified porridge directly from the supplier to ensure the best price. R1,87 per meal per day, donate here.
· Train and equip a Baby Specialist teacher, babies need lots of appropriate stimulation and specialist training. Grow’s Our Baby Programme is designed to inspire the teacher to go from babysitting to Baby Specialist. This two-day practical training course and a resource kit that covers every week of the year with developmental activities and guides. Help babies thrive. R3700 per teacher, any contribution or donation towards this is welcome. Donate here.
· Equip a classroom with art and craft consumables. This is on every ECD centre’s wish list and includes paint, brushes, playdough, paper, crayons, tissues, wet wipes, and handwash. These essentials help us offer curriculum-driven art and craft activities for every age group. R450 per classroom consumable pack, donate here.
· Equip an ECD centre with a tablet. A preschool is a complex small business. Good administration and management plus access to resources require the centre owner and teachers to know how to use technology. Most centres do not have a laptop or even a tablet. A tablet donation will help the centre staff manage learner registration, daily attendance, financial management, resource downloads and daily planning with the online curriculum (among other useful things) on the free Grow ECD management app. The tablet becomes the centre’s property (not an individual’s) and will help the centre for many years to come! R4000 per centre, donate via EFT.
Donations online at: https://www.givengain.com/c/growecd/ or via EFT: GW Foundation, Investec Bank Limited, Branch Code: 580105, Account Number: 10011899076 Current Account, BIC / SWIFT CODE: IVESZAJJXXX. (Use your Surname or Company Name as the reference).
All financial donations to Grow ECD qualify for tax deductions. Grow ECD will supply a Section 18A tax certificate on request, email helene@growecd.org your POP.
