Feed the Babies Fund
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Mission Statement
Mission: To facilitate the growth and development of babies during their formative years, from birth to six years old, by focusing on their nutritional and educational needs. Objectives: 1. To provide an educative, stimulating, and safe environment for preschool children and babies 2. To train caregivers/practitioners in various Early Childhood Development (ECD) courses 3. To provide a nutritious, balanced breakfast to preschool children daily 4. To monitor and evaluate the impact of our support 5. To provide resources
About This Cause
HISTORY: The Feed the Babies Fund was established in 1957 to provide food for malnourished babies in an informal settlement in Cato Crest, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). From 1957 until 2008, we provided cereal and resources to various organisations and schools in KwaZulu-Natal to support their feeding initiatives for vulnerable babies and preschool children. In 2009, Feed the Babies Fund started providing cereal directly to rural, unfunded ECD Centres and began assisting them with building institutional capacity. In 2015, we launched our practitioner training programme, training caregivers/practitioners in various ECD courses. At the end of 2021, we acquired a training centre in Dicks Halt, Osizweni, Newcastle, KZN. Overview: Early childhood is a critical time for a child’s development, yet poverty, household food security and malnutrition continue to compromise development during preschool years. Therefore, care and support are critical. This includes positive social support, adequate nutrition and, most importantly, a healthy environment with access to childcare and early learning. Interventions that combine nutrition and early learning; as Feed the Babies does; are found to benefit children’s cognitive, language and motor skills development, and these impacts are greater when targeting rural, malnourished children. OUR BENEFICIARIES: Rural, unfunded ECD Centres in Kwazulu-Natal: Feed the Babies Fund focuses on Early Childhood Development (ECD) by assisting community ECD Centres in the townships, and rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal. Due to the poverty in the rural communities, there are a huge number of ECD Centres that function in isolation. The ECD Centres are generally established by the women in the community who decide to take care of the preschool children and babies in their area. The buildings that are used as an ECD Centre, are usually poorly constructed without the necessary amenities and therefore they do not meet the minimum requirement needed to qualify for a subsidy from the Department of Basic Education. The ECD Centres do not have much in the way of basic equipment, teaching resources, or educational toys, books and posters. The ECD Centres are staffed by volunteers from the community, who have ample love and enthusiasm to share with the children but do not have the necessary training to teach an ECD Syllabus. We have 109 rural, unfunded ECD Centres which we support. OUR PROJECTS • Nutrition A balanced diet is essential for a child to experience normal growth and enjoy a meaningful education. We provide each ECD Centre with Amandla Plus, which is a highly nutritious and concentrated breakfast cereal. It contains all the minerals, vitamins, and proteins for children aged birth to 6 years. The cereal is specifically manufactured for the Feed the Babies Fund, and we have been providing this cereal to our beneficiaries for the past 25 years. The cereal has been proven to boost their immune systems, build their appetites and give them the necessary energy throughout the day. We are currently feeding 2 361 preschool children daily. This equates to approximately 531 225 breakfast meals annually. • Training ECD learning programmes offer multiple benefits. To ensure that the children who are attending the rural ECD Centres receive the necessary education and stimulation, we train the caregivers in various ECD courses. These courses equip the caregivers with the tools to manage their centres effectively and to teach a syllabus that will further develop the children to prepare them for formal schooling. The training courses we offer also equip the caregivers to further their ECD studies. Courses include educational aids and resources. Caregivers/Practitioners receive a certificate on successful completion of the training course. We offer the following short courses and qualifications: Short Courses: • Orientation & Creche Management • LEGO Playbox (includes LEGO Playboxes) • Lesson Planning (Themes) • “Every Word Counts” – Literacy & Numeracy • ECD Leadership & Management • Nutrition for Young Children (includes a practical day) Qualifications: • Occupational Certificate for ECD Practitioners (Level 4) Online courses: Orientation & Creche Management; ECD Leadership & Management; Nutrition for Young Children MONITORING & EVALUATION A vital part of our support involves ongoing monitoring & evaluation. These visits are conducted via monthly reports from the ECD Centres in the form of a food register, which details the number of children fed, and site visits by our Field Officers. The Field Officers also assess the centres in terms of adherence to hygiene, safety protocols, and training implementation • ECD: Each centre is assessed, and we record our observations regarding structure, number of children, resources and so forth. • Nutrition: Centres must send through their food registers each month. This data shows us how many children are attending the ECD Centre, and how much food has been used and enables us to plan our future deliveries of food to each centre. • Training: After each training course, centres are visited to ensure that the caregivers are implementing the knowledge and tools they obtained during training, to create a stimulating and fun learning environment for the children in their care. BUILDING INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY During our monitoring and evaluation visits, we become aware of other needs the ECD Centres and children have. These needs are individualised to each ECD Centre, but in general, support is given in the form of stationery, toys, books, educational posters, tables and chairs, playground equipment, and infrastructure. Registration: 002-273 NPO PBO 930021047 (Section 18A Tax Certificate for donations made) Accreditations: EDTP 10689 (EDTP/SETA Training accreditation. Accredited Moderator and Assessor) SARS Status - Compliant