Provision to protect children during Covid-19 pandemic and beyond
DSD launches campaign during Child Protection Week (31 May - 7 June) with Nelson Mandela Foundation to improve Early Childhood Development countrywide
AS part of this year’s Child Protection Week (31 May – 7 June) campaign, the Department of Social Development – in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation – aims to improve the standard of Early Childhood Development (ECD) across the country.
Held under the theme ‘Let us all protect children during Covid-19 and beyond’, this year’s awareness programme established this valuable partnership to launch the Vangasali -Every Child Counts campaign.
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Vangasali is targeting unregistered ECD centres to equip them to meet the minimum norms and standards for registration, as stipulated in the Children’s Act (Act No. 38 of 2005).
Rolled out nationwide in three phases, the campaign will find and count (phase 1), categorise (phase 2) and follow through with intervention (phase 3).
The department has conducted a nationwide audit of ECD centres, assessing the nature and extent of ECD provisioning, services, resources and infrastructure across all nine provinces.
This audit revealed that a considerable number of centres were unregistered.
Vangasali – which means ‘leave no child or ECD centre behind’ in Xitsonga – seeks to address this discrepancy by encouraging the public to participate in the campaign and identify ECD centres in their local communities.
Once a centre has been identified, people are advised to send the word ‘ECD’ to 082 0468553 on WhatsApp.
The name, details and geo-location of the centre will be entered into the Govchat database for mapping purposes.
This will also assist in determining the coverage of ECD services, particularly in poor and vulnerable communities.
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Once identified, the goal is to provide support packages to all ECD centres to progressively register and enhance the delivery of quality ECD services, including nutrition, health and safety of children.
ECD registration packages include, among other things, access to basic social services such as government subsidy in the form of a R15 per child per day for 365 days a year.
The ECD subsidy ensures children have access to health services and daily nutritious meals.
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