Upgrading the book and toy library at Inkululeko Daycare Centre

VISION

The library has been a great success and fills a great need in a very neglected area of Tshwane, for both pre-primary and primary schoolchildren. The project has already proved its worth to the pre-primary children in our care. These children come from a very disadvantaged background and do not have access to toys and books at home. We have seen how their language, social skills, perception, co-ordination and mathematical skills have improved since joining the library, and, as the mothers are also involved, they have also benefited. Most of the parents have themselves not experienced the advantages of library membership, and for the first time are taught how games are played and experience the pleasure of participating with their children in fun activities and in reading together. After children have graduated to primary school, they still want to remain members of the library, and therefore we have extended the service to older children in the community. We believe, with an improved and enlarged library, we could make an even greater contribution towards the educational needs of the children in this community.

OVERVIEW

The Tshwane Leadership Foundation is a Christian-based community development organisation who have been operating a Day-care Centre for six years at the Inkululeko Community Centre, providing a high standard of holistic care to 60 children aged 3-6 from Salvokop, an under-resourced suburb of Pretoria, and from homes and shelters in the adjacent inner-city area. Half of the families are single-parents families and several children live with foster parents. Some of the families' income comes from street hawking and many live in backyard shacks. Most of the children have little or no access to books or educational toys at home, and parents and grandparents lack information about the children's developmental needs and how their learning can be stimulated. Inkululeko strives to break the cycle of poverty by providing subsidised professional pre-school education and care, and four years ago began operating a small, informal Book and Toy Library catering for some of the preschool and primary schoolchildren from the area, in an effort to extend their influence into the children's homes.

WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT THIS PROJECT

• This project is an example of good practice in Early Childhood Development in maximising the effective use of resources by a wide community of children and their families, going beyond the confines of the day-care centre where it originates.
• Maximum use is made of the toys, books and resources by lending them out to primary and preschool children from surrounding neighbourhoods.
• In addition, parents are informally educated in how to use the resources effectively at home, providing opportunities to increase their knowledge of children's developmental needs.

EXPECTED LIFE CHANGE

An investment of R50 290.00 puts the operation of the Book and Toy Library on a more sustainable footing, providing a lockable wooden hut for storage of toys when they are out of rotation, purchasing a wider range of high-quality educational resources for all ages, employing a part-time co-ordinator and getting in an educational resource expert to train both the co-ordinator and parent volunteers.

• 120 children who are current or future members of the library benefit from being able to borrow from the expanded range of resources.
• Approximately 10 adults - members of staff of the day-care centre and volunteers at the library - benefit from training in how to maximise the educational impact of the library.
• Up to 500 people who are members of the children's households benefit - adults by learning more about their children's developmental needs, and siblings by using the resources.
• Direct life change for 510 people during the year at a cost of R98.61 per person
• (Ongoing benefits over a period of up to three years while the resources remain in good condition.)

The project has the potential to make a significant impact on the communities of Salvokop and surrounding areas. Pooling resources for sharing, through the library concept, enables the project's benefits to reach broadly to 120 children and their households, and its depth is extended by involving and informing parents about how to make use of the Book and Toy Library. The intensity of the project's impact is fairly high, since members of the library will be able to enjoy the use of new resources every two weeks, or even weekly, and can use them at home in their own time. The permanence of the project will be affected by the limited lifespan of the new resources, but careful maintenance and ongoing fundraising should offset this. The library has the potential to make a major impact on a whole generation of children in the neighbourhoods in which it operates, enabling them to fulfill their educational potential to a significantly enhanced degree.

NEED

The area in which the Inkululeko Community Centre is situated is a neglected suburb in the city centre. Apart from a primary school and the centre, there are no other educational or recreational facilities, shops or parks and no public transport. Most of the residents come from low income groups, and most of the children are unsupervised after school hours. Because children at the day-care centre and the primary school lack access to books, toys and educational resources at home, they miss out on potential opportunities to extend their learning in the home environment. Parents also need to engage with teachers and librarians on how to maximise their children's learning through playing with and reading to them.

STRATEGY

The proposed strategy is to expand and formalise the library and puts it on a more sustainable footing by:

• Employing a part-time co-ordinator to have the library open for a full day each week
• Undertaking training by an educational resource expert for the teachers, the co-ordinator and a group of parent volunteers on how to administer the library effectively and how to maximise its educational effect
• Providing a wooden hut for storage of toys when they are out of rotation
• Purchasing a wider range of high-quality educational resources for all ages, including toys, games, books, CDs and DVDs
• Expanding the informal training given to parents accompanying the preschool children when they borrow items from the library
• Holding monthly "play days" with educational activities that include neighbourhood primary schoolchildren, making use of the library's new audiovisual equipment.

ACTION PLAN

Preparation

In the preparation phase, the project will be discussed by the staff of the Inkululeko Day-care Centre, under the leadership of the Principal. The post of part-time Book and Toy Library co-ordinator will be advertised and an appointment made, and an appeal will go out for parent volunteers. An initial consultation session will be held with the educational resource expert.

Implementation

In the implementation phase, the wooden hut will be purchased and installed, together with security measures. The co-ordinator and principal will purchase shelves, cupboards, a computer, a TV, DVD player and CD player, and a new range of toys, games, books, CDs and DVDs. The administration system will be adapted to be computer-based and efficient. A training session for staff and volunteers will be held with the educational resource expert. Children will be enrolled in the library and pay a membership fee of R25 per child per annum, and a letter will be sent to parents requesting their commitment to looking after the resources and to visiting for informal training sessions. A parent meeting will be called to explain the importance of everyone's involvement in and commitment to the library.

Monitoring

In the monitoring phase the educational resource expert will visit to check that the new administration system is in place and that the resources are being inspected, repaired and cleaned when necessary. A follow-up parent-staff meeting will be held at the end of the 12 month implementation period to look at a summary of the records of loans for the period and assess how well the expanded library is operating.

RISK PROFILE

Key Strengths

• Concept: The approach of establishing a toy, book and resource library to extend children's learning beyond the daycare or school into the home environment is a sound one, as is the idea of increasing parental involvement.
• Design: Expanding the range of resources available will enable more children to benefit and meet more of their educational needs. The way in which the library operates is based on established international principles of effective toy library administration and management, and computerising the administration system will ensure that resources are kept track of.
• Capability: The principal and staff of the day-care centre are well qualified and experienced, and understand the importance of the library, which has already been running for four years.
• Control: Standard library records have already been installed, and work reasonably well. As the library expands and acquires a more formal, computer-based record keeping system, there will be better control. The day-care centre has a good system of governance and financial oversight, including audited financial statements.
• Sustainability: The Book and Toy Library is part of the Inkululeko Day-care Centre, which in turn is part of the Inkululeko Community Centre, and all of these organisations are overseen by the Board of Trustees of the Tshwane Leadership Foundation , which has been in existence for 13 years and provides administrative, financial, bookkeeping and marketing support. In the past, the Inkululeko Community Centre has managed to raise funds from churches, individuals, corporate and public benefactors, and they believe this will continue. The library has received donations and volunteer help from several churches and two Rotary Clubs, and the staff of the centre feel that these partnerships are likely to continue and may even be extended.

Key Risks

• Design: The process of involving parents is an informal one, and there is little contact with the parents of the primary schoolchildren. Even with the preschool parents, there is a risk that they may not visit the library or take the time to benefit from training opportunities.
• Capability: The volunteers currently involved with the library are not trained - this will, however, be mitigated by training by the educational resource expert and the appointment of a co-ordinator who will receive training.
• Sustainability: Bearing in mind the age of the library users and the nature of play, the stock will not have a long lifespan, and will need to be closely monitored, repaired, cleaned and replaced when necessary - which will have cost implications. Even if parents sign forms indicating that they will prevent the resources from being lost or damaged, there is still a risk that this might occur on a significant scale. This may be mitigated by getting parents' buy-in through holding a parent-teacher meeting about the library. If public financial support for the Inkululeko Community Centre and its programmes declines, the Book and Toy Library and other programmes will become more dependent on the Tshwane Leadership Foundation for funding, and on planned income generation projects which have not yet been tested.
• External: The main external risk is that of theft of the resources of the Book and Toy Library - both while they are out on loan to the children, and when they are displayed at the day-care centre. This latter risk is mitigated by the fact that the centre has recently installed a burglar alarm system, and by the fact that the staff understand the importance of obtaining the community's buy-in to the concept of the library and its value to them.