Leveling  the grounds for early education and development of children of Khayelitsha, the 17th of March saw the opening of Kuyasa Library, a state-of-the-art library that was built by Violence Prevention Through Urban upgrading in partnership with the City of Cape Town, Conergie Foundation, Western Cape government and various stakeholders.

As part of marking the importance and promotion of this new Toy Library, the Sikhula Sonke crew set up a public demo of an outside toy library, which children enjoyed during this opening. The team also displayed the resources from our partners such as Nal'ibali, BrainBoosters, Unlimited Child, Persona Dolls and Word Works so that parents could see the resources that they can use when visiting our toy library or sending their children to ECD facilities.

Check out our Facebook page for all the photos of the day. 

​Thanks to Cotlands for a wonderful Toy Library seminar that was hosted in their toy Library in Maccassar. As usual our team didn’t disappoint in sharing what they are made of; they fully participated and shared their ideas with other organizations who run toy library services across the province. 
Blessed are the little children and the people who give their lives to the development of young children. We salute you.

Emthonjeni is rolling!  We are excited at the number of children who are joining the programme which is run in public spaces in areas which often don't have any preschools.

​Buyiswa Balani visited one of our Emthonjeni sites with her Persona Doll. The children were fascinated by the doll and story, and through creative storytelling, Buyiswa was able to start important conversations with the children. 

First developed as an anti-bias approach in the United States in the 1970s, Persona Doll Training was introduced in South Africa by Carol Smith, Founding Director of PDT (SA) in 2004. The approach builds on universal and African traditions of storytelling, taken a step further – into discussion and dialogue, with a strong focus on hearing children’s voices.  Dolls help children to express their feelings and ideas, think critically, challenge unfair treatment and develop empathy with people who are different to themselves. The approach helps to develop life skills, self-esteem, respect for diversity, problem-solving, language, conflict resolution, and emotional literacy.