Sibongile Mtembu heads up an educare project in Mbuba village with support from educare NGO, Little Elephant Training Centre for Early Education (LETCEE). GreaterGood SA writer, Jill Sloan, met up with Sibongile in the Mbuba community hall to talk about the Toy Library project.

I drive out from Greytown to Mbuba village with Mary and Charmayne from LETCEE’s project in Greytown. The day is grey and rain threatens. Mary skilfully swerves the vehicle to avoid deep potholes brimming with water. The journey reminds me of travels on dirt roads while I was a child growing up in Port St Johns on the Transkei coast.

We arrive at a community hall on a large fenced piece of land. This is the site on which LETCEE plans to erect a toy library which will reach over 200 children of pre-school age. Inside the hall is Sibongile Mtembu. She co-ordinates the village’s early childhood development project, assisted by twelve family facilitators. The project reaches 120 families spread across the rural village. With a total population of around 5,000 people, this project reaches directly into one in every ten households.

Play visits

Sibongile explains that each family facilitator has been given a bag of toys by LETCEE. They use these toys to play with children when they go for home visits, also discussing with adults in the household how young children learn important skills though playing with educational toys. The bags contain different toys, including cars, puzzles, tennis balls and skipping ropes, plastic animals, dolls and books. Every month, the Family Facilitators come together and swop their bags of toys.

“People here like this project because we are making relationships with the children,” says Sibongile. “Before, the parents and grandparents would tell the children to keep quiet and go away. Now they are understanding that the children must play and be happy.”

Supporting families

The project does not restrict its work to early childhood development. Through their reach directly into the homes of the children they are working with, Family Facilitators have a unique opportunity to support families to provide for other needs of children under the age of six. They help families complete applications for birth certificates and social grants; educate caretakers about the importance of vaccinations, hygiene and clean water; and discuss with adults in the household how young children learn important skills though playing with educational toys.

The family facilitators act as a safety net for children in this community affected by poverty and extreme hardship. It helps households to unlock resources they would not have been able to access on their own.

Enjoyment for children

Sibongile’s face lights up when we speak of what a toy library will mean to the two hundred preschoolers who will benefit. “My children will cry about those toys, they (will) like it so much,” she answers.

“We will be very happy if we can get a toy library here. Without the toys, the children are just sitting with nothing to do and not even playing with each other, just sitting around and staying alone. Now the children can laugh and play. The toys are letting the children have fun.”