Introduction

The ECD Values Education Programme is designed to promote a core set of values, underpinned by the African philosophy of humanism – Ubuntu. The current levels of intolerance, hatred, violence and unethical conduct in our society are symptoms of a malaise in our communities and a breakdown of basic values. GDT VEP is designed to make an intervention to correct this trend.

Project Development

From a pilot programme in 4 sites increasing the number of sires to 10 in the following year, we branched out into train the trainer model in Phase 3. In this phase we trained community trainers drawn from 5 ECD Forums in Folweni, Kwa Makhutha, Umlazi, Hammarsdale and Umzinto, all located in KwaZulu Natal. Each of the trainers in turn trained about 20 practitioners from 20 different sites in their region reaching over 3840 children. Over the three years our training module was also dev-eloped using a holistic approach. The programme now integrates three critical areas and involves the relevant Durban University of Technology (DUT) departments.

DUT Training Support

The aim of the parallel programmes, supported by relevant DUT departments, was to contribute to the holistic development of the child. The three critical requirements of wholesome food, effective and targeted physical development and promoting and developing creativity were immediately accepted by the relevant DUT departments and their outreach programme implementation teams. This partnership has contributed significantly to the development of a holistic approach to child development.

Durban University of Technology (DUT) departments:

Drama: Using Educational Theatre to support teaching & learning and making the learning more attractive and interesting,

Food & Nutrition: Developing a healthy and balanced food plan to ensure the development and growth of the children at this critical stage of their development.

Sport: Developing an effective physical education programme to ensure the development of the young bodies.

Holistic Training Programme

This partnership training programme contributed to the expansion of the project. In the 12 month period, the following milestones were achieved:

• Trained and certified 5 community trainers.
• Trained and certified 98 practitioners.
• Engaged with 96 sites.
• Reached 3840 children.
• Provided trainee support and monitoring.
• Evaluated values programme in participating sites.
• Embedded values programme in 3 DUT
departments.
• Partnered in a Waterloo training programme • Obtained acceptance of values training
course at DUT.
• Developed a pilot parent support programme.
• Included animal care in the training content.
• Continued promoting the training programme
on relevant platforms.