Cape Town-based nonprofit organisation GROW Educare Centres seeks to make quality education affordable by working with early childhood development (ECD) centres in South Africa.
ECD centres have been recognised globally for their critical role in preparing children for school. However, in developing countries, many children are left behind due to a lack of access to ECDs and other educational facilities.
In South Africa, more than 55% of children under the age of five are unlikely to meet developmental milestones. The effects of this could burden them through the courses of their lives if not addressed immediately.
According to Helene Brand, national marketing manager at GROW, the ECD sector employs an estimated 200 000 people. However, she said, this came at a cost and teachers at ECDs are often not compensated for the work they do.
“Often, we don’t talk about the financial business model of running an ECD centre because we don’t want to face the harsh reality that many women are not being paid fairly for the services that they provide.”
Over eight years, GROW worked with ECD centres to develop a curriculum and other necessary tools to implement at centres. The aim was to create a “recipe” that delivered “quality education and sustainable businesses,” she said.
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What they do
The idea behind GROW was inspired by the high cost of sending children to ECDs which were often located distant from townships. The organisation’s aim is to equip ECDs with skills and tools necessary to enhance children’s learning at the centres.
“Quality education should be available where you are in your community. We wanted to experiment and see if we could use the same principles of small business but bring them into ECD so that quality early childhood development can become affordable and accessible where people are,” said Brand.
A group of entrepreneurs launched their head office in Langa, Cape Town, in 2014. Since then, GROW has expanded to open regional offices in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal. Their social-franchise operating model has since improved education and business outcomes in 43 early learning centres in the country.
“It really is about building the network of ECD centres who support each other and use the products and services that GROW has to offer because most of our products and services are for free,” Brand said, adding, “we really want to do a great job to support them and [work] with more partners so we can bring good quality products and services to ECD.”
One of the products designed by GROW is an app. The app is meant to assist ECDs in the management of their facilities. The free app allows ECDs to communicate with parents, manage enrollment and fulfil other admin tasks without the need for printers and laptops which, Brand stated, were difficult to come by in disadvantaged communities.
