A local practitioner claimed victory during the Eastern Cape Early Childhood Development (ECD) awards ceremony held at the 1820 Settlers Monument on Wednesday.
A local practitioner claimed victory during the Eastern Cape Early Childhood Development (ECD) awards ceremony held at the 1820 Settlers Monument on Wednesday.
Lungelwa Mtwalo from Grahamstown's Little Flower Day-Care Centre came first in the top ECD practitioners category and will represent the province at the national awards in Johannesburg. “I am very happy because to me this an achievement and a challenge at the same time," said an ecstatic Mtwalo.
Mtwalo, who has been working as an ECD practitioner for 12 years, thanked her colleagues and committee members from her ECD Centre for the support they gave her. “Without them I would not be here receiving this award,” she said.
The aim for the awards is to honour ECD centres and practitioners which have shown commitment and dedication in different ECD centres around the province and the winners will compete on the national awards level later this year. The awards are primarily funded by Absa Bank and were initiated in 2003 by South African Congress for Early Childhood Development (SACECD). Since the awards's inception seven years ago Absa and its partners have invested R11.4-million in the awards countrywide.
Absa's Andy de la Mare, who was the programme director during the ceremony said: “Absa is involved because we believe that the best investment is being involved in the child's life at a very young age.” SACECD national chairperson Ruth Faku thanked all the sponsors and ECD practitioners for caring about the future of the kids. Faku also said that although the practitioners are doing a great job, no one takes them seriously.
“God will help ECD practitioners because they are illiterate and no one wants to talk about them,” she said. Rene King from Khululeka was the guest speaker and told the practitioners that they should never ever let their standard drop. “We need to work with parents to make sure that we achieve our goals because parents play a very important role in ECD,” she said.
Nozuko Ntsoboyi from East London's Lingelethu Educare Centre, which won the top ECD centre award, said the award is very important to them as they are not getting any kind of funding and that they are doing the work because of their love for kids. “Parents should support us not only financially but by attending meetings and become part and parcel of the ECD programmes,” she said.
