Durban — This Mandela Day the DO MORE FOUNDATION and RCL Foods in KwaZulu-Natal collaborated to distribute packs to under-resourced Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres.
The DO MORE FOUNDATION, collaborating with RCL Foods in Durban, Sunbake in Umgeni and Sunbake in Pietermaritzburg, united their efforts to distribute 80 play packs containing toys made from upcycled household materials to ECD centres in the area, as part of their Mandela Day initiative.
The initiative, known as Built to Play, forms a significant aspect of the foundation’s broader Mandela Day campaign, which involves over 40 businesses and organisations collectively creating toys for 255 ECD centres across South Africa, benefiting approximately 12 500 children.
The foundation’s partnerships manager, Iris Naidoo, said the campaign drew attention to the integral role of play in our development and learning, from early childhood to adulthood.
“This initiative aligns with the foundation’s purpose and also its commitment to fostering a child-centred climate adaptation and resilience approach. Prioritising children’s well-being in climate action serves as a pathway to sustainable development on a long-term scale,” Naidoo said.
“Children who experience nurturing care and a conducive environment during their early years enjoy improved lifelong health outcomes, foster stronger relationships, exhibit heightened resilience and are more likely to become positive contributors to their communities and the country’s economic growth.”
Naidoo added that it was essential to inspire individuals to actively engage in upcycling waste and creating toys for children not only on Mandela Day, but throughout the year. The essence of play lies not in the price of toys, but in the imagination they foster.
“Each play pack is thoughtfully curated and includes engaging items like puppets made from socks, vibrant characters crafted from plastic bottle tops and counting fish constructed from cardboard packaging,” the foundation said.
The foundation said the toys, designed by Singakwenza, a non-profit organisation specialising in caregiver training, facilitated fun and educational play, allowing young children to develop essential foundational skills through recycling-based resources.
“The selection of play pack contents is purposeful, targeting various areas of ECD, including gross motor co-ordination, fine motor and visual co-ordination, cognitive and executive functioning and more. These areas are particularly critical as a significant percentage of SA children face challenges in these domains,” the foundation said.
It said alarming statistics from the Thrive by Five Index 2022 indicated that more than half of SA children aged 4 and 5, attending Early Learning Programmes, struggled to meet expected learning tasks for their age group.
Furthermore, the recently released 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (2021 Pirls) revealed a disheartening reality: 81% of Grade 4 pupils in SA lack reading comprehension skills in any language. ECD lays the foundation for reading skills, emphasising the crucial importance of stimulating learning and play materials.
The foundation added that through play, children learnt to draw conclusions, reason, generate creative ideas and develop patience. Play also helps children understand and process their emotions, teaching them valuable skills in managing anger, sadness and grief. Additionally, playing fosters confidence, self-esteem and a sense of identity in children.
Recognising these benefits, the foundation encourages individuals to contribute by creating toys through the upcycling of waste materials, thereby helping children learn through play even beyond Mandela Day, the foundation said.
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News