Special Projects

Structured Playgroups

Targeting children at the age 3-5, and they receive stimulation closer to their homes where there is no access to ECD center’s or limited ECD centers, 328 structured playgroups. These are facilitated by stipend paid play facilitators. They have contracts renewable annually based on the availability of funding. The program is facilitated from Monday to Friday.

Home Visiting Programme

Targeting children from birth to four. They are visited in their homes by play facilitators to provide early learning programmes that is age appropriate to stimulate and to develop their brains. TREE has 102 stipend paid home visiting facilitators with each having 14 families to visit in a month using rotation method. The program runs from Monday to Friday.

Community Toy Libraries

They are central points within the communities where parents and children can loan toys, bring children to come and play, parents to borrow toys on behalf of their children and return the toy, exchange and rotate the toys etc. These toy libraries are also demonstration sites for food security and water harvesting. They are further utilized by the government departments as one stop service center, i.e. children receive immunization from the Department of Health. Currently, TREE effectively executes deliverables in 11 toy libraries. The toy librarians are also receiving a stipend monthly.

Meal a Day Kitchen

The organization serves hearty warm nutritious meal to the children that come to play in the toy libraries. The ration that is served per day ranges between 90 to 229. The areas differ in terms of the massive demand for food. There are five areas/kitchens that serve soup. With the funding available the organization envisage to open more Meal a day services, i.e. in other operating areas.

Power Girls

This programme is targeting vulnerable girls. The platform is created for them to be empowered to be the agents of change in their communities when they reach adulthood. Currently we have 96 girls in the programme. The program is compelling Girls to be in the program for a consecutive period of seven years. The targeted age cohort is from nine years. We have six stipend paid facilitators and coordinators. An after school care program.

Food Gardens

TREE, with the support of generous funders, promotes food security to all communities where we have programmes. The emphasis is on one home one garden as this will mitigate poverty and provide food on the table. Trainings and skills are facilitated on gardening, profit making and eating healthily. Currently TREE, with the support of the funders, has 668 food gardens from families/households and two communal gardens. Harvesting is done as well as replanting.

Smartstart Social Franchise

This social franchise further ensures that there is no child left behind. Every child has to have access to early learning programme regardless of the isolation of his/her home. This is responding to National Development Plan 2030, every child before going to a big school should have gone through early childhood development programme. We train, provide resources and reach out to those children through local coaches and franchisees that facilitate the learning programme. This builds the foundation for the children to be successful in life in future. The total number of children reached in 2021 for TREE indirect programmes was 16 963.

TREE is based in Durban, under EThekwini Metropolitan Municipality but provides services in a number of district municipalities being; Harry Gwala, uThukela, uMzinyathi, iLembe, uMgungundlovu, OR Tambo, Dr Nkosazana Zuma, Zululand and Ugu.

ECD Mobile Program

The Mobile ECD Programme serves to increase access to quality ECD services in underserved communities where there is often no access to ECD at all or it is generally limited and of poor standard and quality. Practitioners are trained to support learning by providing activities and materials that children find engaging. Nurturing a child encompasses all aspects of development: social, emotional, cognitive, language and physical. In every interaction with children, a practitioner is nurturing appropriate growth and development. This mobile alternate days and weeks so that we provide early learning in different wards/villages. We have 30 stipend paid volunteers.

Post Training and Mentoring Program (SIZANANI COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE)

The Sizanani Community of Practice project has been developed, adapted and packaged with a thought to support practitioners in mind in strengthening their skills towards providing an active playful learning for young children.

The quality of teaching and learning is indispensable for effective early development to take place. Irrespective of the condition in which a child is located, a quality teacher can provide a learning environment in which a child can develop optimally and in a holistic style. To produce quality ECD teachers, various training and education opportunities need to be made available, it can be through full ECD qualifications, as well as through short skills programmes.

The organisation took it as its critical responsibility to follow, in order to understand practitioner’s knowledge, attitude, skills and abilities implementation in creating an active and playful learning environment for children in their children. This thought then gave birth to the Sizanani Community of Practise concept.

The main purpose of the program then is to help practitioners acquire knowledge and skills to deepen their understanding of a shared vision principles in the child development. To facilitate experience sharing amongst themselves to support the country’s need of quality education and lastly to ensure sustainability.

Launch of our First Computer Lab

2022 saw the launch of our very first computer lab. The growing need for computer literacy in our communities is overwhelming and in keeping abreast with the 4th Industrial Revolution , we decided to take action to empower our underserved communities, by running a week long course covering the basics of computer literacy. This short course has seen a confindence boost in our pratitioners and a egarness to learn more about technology.

Unemployed Youth Skills Development

Another TREE first, with the alarming rate of unemployed youth in South Africa, TREE decided to take action by mentoring 10 x unemployed youth with carpentry skills, taught by our in house carpenter at our manufacturing department. This year long programme will equip our youth with entrepreneur knowledge to start their own business and will also boost their chances of being employed in the wood working sector, as they will have on the job experience and skills.

Food Relief and Hygiene Care

The affects of Covid19 and the 2022 KZN Floods has seen an increase in the number of families, having little to no means of providing basic staples in the home, through various partners we are able to meet the needs of such families, through food parcels and hygiene packs.