IN a bid to equip Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres to reopen, The Domino Foundation has helped to deep clean classrooms and outdoor play areas at 63 centres which work alongside Domino’s nutrition programme.
The ‘Get Our Little Children Back To School’ sanitising activity aims to help ECD centres meet the requirements set out by the Department of Social Development.
“We will need to help these ECD centres with cleaning and sanitising materials for some time to come,” said Zanele Nzimakwe, leader of the ECD team at The Domino Foundation.
She appealed to the community to support the sanitising activity which will be ongoing as long as Covid-19 regulations are in place.
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”We have worked with the centres’ owners and educators to file the department’s self-assessment forms. Now, with re-opening on the horizon, we have helped with ensuring correct sanitising of the centres, and with making arrangements for regular screenings of the children and arranging classroom spaces for stipulated social-distancing,” added Nzimakwe.
She said the ECD centres do not have funding for the necessary supplies since many of the children’s caregivers have not been earning an income during the lockdown period.
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“They haven’t been able to pay the fees which the centres depend on for their day-to-day running and so there is nothing extra in the bank accounts for the centres to pay for staff PPE masks, sanitisers, cleaning materials and thermometers. Even soap and water for some centres is a challenge,” she said.
For more information, email: admin@domino.org.za or call 031 563 9605.
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