Singakwenza

About us

Singakwenza, was "born" in 2010, when two friends, Julie Hay and Debbie McCarthy, decided to join their areas of expertise to create an organisation that would address, through education, two main issues facing many South Africans, namely Education and Health.
The key philosophy of Singakwenza is "Sustainable Change".
Singakwenza, meaning "We can do it!" (in Isizulu) is a charity organisation which aims to build sustainable Early Childhood Education programmes in economically disadvantaged areas, using resources made from recycling.

What we do
• Mentorship programme: Singakwenza trainers mentor crèche caregivers in their own crèches one day a week every week for a minimum of two years. They teach each caregiver how to educate her children using resources made from recycling and the significance of each activity in terms of Early Childhood Development. Their role is walking alongside these crèche teachers, guiding and encouraging them towards a daily fun, structured, educational programme, so that when we leave, the programme will continue without us. In addition, our Occupational Therapist assists our crèche teachers, who are involved in the mentorship programme, to do early identification of issues that can affect the children’s ability to learn and help them to refer these children to the correct governmental departments and services. She has also developed some simple Occupational Therapy lessons that the teachers can do with all the children to limit some of the developmental delays that can happen if the child is not exposed to these activities at the right age.
• Waste 2 Toys Workshop: Our fun, hands-on workshop teach all caregivers of young children (parents, educators, community workers, tec.) how to make their own toys and teaching materials using household packaging that is usually thrown away. We focus on the importance of learning through play and each workshop covers a different area of learning (eg. Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Maths Skills, Language Development and Puzzles, etc.). We can present these Waste2Toys workshops in Zulu, Xhosa, English and Afrikaans, or any language if a translator is provided, and we travel throughout South Africa and to other countries (funding dependant) to present our workshops.

Linda Hill is a Fundraiser and Project Coordinator of Singakwenza.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.