Community-based learning to support South African early group care

Abstract

The Developing Families Project-South Africa (DFP-SA) is a community-based model of education and training for the care, support and education of vulnerable children birth-to-three and their caregivers, guardians and families in rural and peri-urban townships. The approach fosters interactive learning among community members about early care and education integrated with HIV/AIDS education and prevention. This article focuses on the early group care component of the program. The DFP curriculum was co-constructed by the authors in conjunction with local parents and early childhood practitioners and trainers, based in part on findings from crèche observations and situational assessments of indigenous beliefs and attitudes concerning child development, early care and HIV/AIDS, implemented in five township settings across four provinces. This work is situated in the context of globalized educational practices with an eye toward meaningful integration of indigenous and Western ideas that together can help participants move toward consensus to improve care for this particularly vulnerable population.

Keywords:

• birth-to-three
• South Africa
• community-based learning

Acknowledgements

This project has received funding from Rockefeller Brothers and MAC/AIDS Foundations. Tremendous thanks go to the authors’ South African partners and US colleagues Monica Hayes, Emily Soong and Laura Zellerbach.

Notes

1. The term ‘community’ has multiple constructions. Here, we refer to individual citizens in a given geographical location who have banded together with interests in bettering their local under-threes group care conditions. Usually crèches vote for their parent and practitioner representatives, and local NGOs recommend other interested persons who are not connected to crèches.

2. Ubutu represents a deeply respected African belief that ‘I am a person because you are a person’ – reflecting a historically more interdependent society than in the West.