BOSHOF EDUCARE CENTRE RECEIVES EXTRA SUPPORT

August 2021, Boshof Solar Power.

A heart-warming donation has been handed over to Leretlhabetse Educare Centre, an Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre that cares for around 70 children, as young as 9 months old. Situated in Boshof, Free State, the Educare Centre has received educational equipment and other essential childcare goods, to help the facility provide a better, safer environment.

The handover took place over two days, during the last week of July 2021, and included cot beds, mattresses, learning materials and playground equipment, funded as part of the Boshof Solar Power’s overall ECD infrastructure programme.

“As part of a third-party specialist needs assessment, we have been able to ascertain how ECD centres in our beneficiary communities can be best supported,” said Zuki Ndlela, Economic Development Officer for Boshof Solar Power.

In addition to providing ECD equipment and educational material, the solar plant’s programme extends to providing infrastructure, management training, practitioner training and other such support to help improve the level of education and childcare.

As an example of this, two of the Leretlhabetse Educare’s practitioners, namely, Mimi Thotelo and Zelda Moremi, are currently working towards their 2-year NQF Level 4 ECD certification, as part of a cohort that are funded by Boshof Solar Power. This programme will uplift Practitioner qualification to a required level, for all teaching staff, across nine ECD centres that the solar plant supports, within its beneficiary communities of Boshof and Hertzogville.

“Our ECD Programme works to advance childhood development in the target areas and is currently providing training to fourteen ECD Practitioners, across nine of the thirteen centres supported. Furthermore, management training has been provided for three facilities, with a focus on compliance and ECD centre governance, so that we not only look to uplift the teaching quality, but work towards a long term vision, to ensure that ECD centres move from being day care facilities to centres of education and development that are sustainable and can offer the best care possible,” concluded Ndlela.