Children in the Rand West (Randfontein communities) are now accessing a nutritional breakfast meal supported by DO MORE FOUNDATION (DMF).
The Foundation currently provides instant DoMore porridge to 2 500 children aged 0-5 years in Early Child Development (ECD) centres that are in communities around the RCL FOODS production facility.
The ECD community and stakeholders have faced some significant challenges over the past five months, and ACFS Community Education has been working with them to identify these challenges and to jointly find inclusive local solutions to ensure that young children have access to a range of services.
DMF partnered with ACFS Community Education to conduct an independent scoping/baseline assessment in the Randfontein area and surrounding communities.
The outcome of the scoping exercise indicated that 43 out of 131 ECD centres visited did not have proper meals prepared for children. This sparked a much-needed intervention from DMF with the foundation committing to do work with all stakeholders in Randfontein to create a collective local impact for ECD in this Municipality .
To mark the start of this project, DMF hosted an inaugural kick-off meeting on Friday 15 September 2023. Rand West City Local Municipality Executive Mayor: Gladys Khoza was the guest speaker and Adrian Grimett from RCL FOODS Groceries was in attendance.Other speakers included Sergeant Portia Ledwaba from SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, Ms Dipuo Ngakane from District Health Unit, Danielle Fourie, Social Worker: Department of Education and ECD forums representatives.
The event kicked off with a quote from respected economist, Prof Heckman: “Quality early childhood education provides persistent, life-long benefits to the child and society long after they have left preschool”.
It is estimated that 1,1 million children aged 3-4 years are not in any early learning programme. Nearly 500 000 of these young children are from under-served communities across South Africa.
To date, DMF has launched various National Young Child programmes directed at improving nutrition, early learning and providing parent/caregiver support. The Foundation also facilitates several deep-rooted community-specific development projects to promote universal access to a comprehensive package of quality services to meet young children’s developmental rights and needs as outlined in the National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy and Nurturing Care framework.
