EDITORIAL
FAIRHILLS GROWING “FORESTS” THROUGH EDUCATION
Via Afrika Smile produces a range of curriculum-linked educational apparatus such as educational puzzles and posters, and mathematics kits for pre-school and Grades R to 3. These materials take the learner from the concrete (touch and feel) to the abstract (written and printed materials). The company also offers a very cost-effective science kit and a technology kit for Grades 4 to 6 classrooms.
All the objects and charts are developmentally and age-appropriate for learners in the first years of school. Interaction with the materials will enable learners to develop and integrate knowledge, skills and values that will set them on their way to future educational success.
Good products need the support of good teaching, so the materials include a comprehensive teacher’s guide and Training DVD. These materials provide teachers with a suggested structure within which to use the learning material to achieve the required learning outcomes.
All the Via Afrika Smile materials are non-toxic and safe for the learners to use. Most of the materials are plastic and no toxic colourants or paint is used in the manufacturing process.
More than 90% of Via Afrika Smile’s products are produced in South Africa using local labour and so carry the “Proudly South African” logo.
Via Afrika Smile supplies learning materials and kits to South Africa and various African countries. It also exports to Australia, New Zealand, Cyprus, Ireland, the Middle East and the United Kingdom.
“
P O Box 899, Halfway House, 1685 Tel. 011 314 7175 Fax 011 314 5297 E-mail:
carien.vanrooyen@
smilesa.co.za www.smilesa.co.za
They say the best time to plant a tree, was twenty years ago. The next best time to plant it is now. When you are born on one of the farms in the Fairhills Fairtrade Wine Project, you can look forward to growing really tall in life, if you like. The soil certainly has been prepared.
This empowerment project was started in 2005 as a partnership between Origin Wine, a wine marketing and sales company, Du Toitskloof Cooperative Cellar and its community of farm laborers in Rawsonville in the Western Cape. More than1200 people, all living on Du Toitskloofs’ 21 Fairtrade accredited farms, benefit from various micro-projects funded by the sales of the Fairtrade wines, government subsidies and client donations with most of the investment going into education.
“Investing in education is equivalent to investing in the bigger democratic project.
Yes, in theory we have a democratic
society, but in practice this only comes to life when people, all people, are equipped to participate socially, politically and economically in said society. Education is the key to that,” says
Bernard Fontannaz, CEO of Origin Wine and the founder of Fairhills.
As per Fairtrade regulation, the community ultimately governs the application of the Fairtrade Premium (surcharge charged on all Fairtrade accredited goods), and they decided to secure the future first. This they did by setting-up three daycare centers. Staffed by 22 trained Educare teachers, all of them women who previously either worked the vineyards or ran informal daycare centers from home, it now takes care of a total of 170 children from the ages of 3 months to 5 years. Malnutrition and ill health not being friends to effective learning, the kids receive two warm meals per day and weekly medical check-ups. Educational musical performances and extra art workshops are some of the tools used to further stimulate young minds.
Teachers are also constantly encouraged to moved beyond any perceived limitations. Two have completed their Level 5 ECD qualification and seven are still toiling away at Level 4. “It takes a lot of motivation. Sometimes I know the teachers feel out of
www.ed.org.za
CHAPTER 9 | EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT AND ADULT BASIC EDUCATION AND TRAINING
171
www.globecreative.co.za
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123