Strengthening Early Childhood Development through Collaborative Partnerships

The project involved relocating a prefabricated container to serve as a community hub for “Embodied Learning,” which uses movement and play to address developmental delays. Key activities included weekly mother and baby classes, monthly Saturday workshops for practitioners, and research collaboration with the University of Cologne focusing on HBF’s developmental methods. 1,546,beneficiaries, including 960 mothers and babies, 130 school children, and over 100 upskilled ECD practitioners were reached by the project. The project achieved rapid success, upskilling 100 ECD practitioners in just one month. Notably, a life-changing early intervention for a child with delayed development was achieved after the child began crawling after just two sessions. The organisation has established a number of valuable partnerships including with Wits University, among others and has been a strong advocate for ECD interventions that focus on the whole child. The project has seen significant growth and is looking to secure administrative support to ensure long-term sustainability.