Following on from the success of building new classrooms and kitchen facilities at Sikhona Educare and Sunrise Educare in Khayelitsha with CSI partner Breadline Africa, South African retailer PNA has set its sight on building new facilities at another two new schools in the Eastern Cape, namely the Ntlakwe Pre-school and the Thandabantu Pre-school respectively, located in the Eastern Cape.
These schools collectively support over 100 children, aged six months to 5 years, and are critically important to the surrounding communities.
Launched on Mandela Day, 18 July 2022, the “Rock Your Funky Socks” Campaign is a fun and innovative way to create social awareness and to amplify the support South African education requires to develop schools and raise funds to support education.
Numerous studies have shown that poor early learning foundations set children on a poor education trajectory. In South Africa, only half of 3-4 year old’s participate in any early learning programme, and only half of these children attend programmes of sufficient quality to address critical gaps. On top of that, many ECD centres are under-resourced and lack the essential infrastructure to function as safe, efficient, and effective schools.
Failure to invest properly in ECD services for our young children has meant that patterns of education and employment have not fundamentally changed. If left unchecked this will result in multiple future generations of `lost` children which would be catastrophic for South Africa.
“Poor infrastructure, crowded classrooms and unhygienic sanitation continue to dog education outcomes, and decisive action and investment has to be taken in order to ensure every South African child has access to quality education.” says Chantelle Fritz, PNA Marketing Manager. She continues “ We need to give every South African child a chance for a better future”.
“Breadline Africa`s Janine McEvoy concurs “We believe that every child had the capacity to do something phenomenal with their lives if they are equipped with the correct life skills and hands on support.
Beyond providing safe infrastructure and stimulating learning environments, Breadline Africa extends its support to school principals and teachers. The organisation provides ongoing, on-site support for up to 3 years, so that the schools have access to teaching and learning materials, mentorships and training, as well as school feeding schemes.
How you can support early development schools with PNA
A simple and fun process, customers and the public can buy a Funky Socks Day sticker for R10 from PNA throughout the month of August and then wear their funkiest socks for the entire day on 2 September 2022. Work or school socks get replaced by your funky socks to show support for building these schools.
