“The Nurturing Care Centre has changed the way that I think about parenting. I do not have to always shout to get my point across to my child. I am learning to be softer and more attentive to my children. How I was raised is very different from how I would like to raise my children. My parents had a strict hand which caused a lot of anger in me growing up, but I am learning how not to be an angry parent, and be more of a supportive and positive parent. The Nurturing Care Centre has been helpful and the presence of the facilitator has been helpful as she identifies areas where we might need help when we are engaging with our children and assist us accordingly.”

In November 2023, the Mikhulu Trust opened the doors to its newly established Nurturing Care Centre for Families, based at Lake Tiberias Church in Makhaza, Khayelitsha. The Centre is a venue where parents and caregivers can go with their young children (under age 6) and get support for their parenting journey while interacting with their children outside the home environment, and where there is minimal distraction. The range of services and topics covered reflects a holistic approach to addressing the needs of both parents/caregivers and young children that ultimately supports their children’s development.

The Centre is operational three days a week, from 1 pm to 3 pm, where the facilitator, who is also a social worker engages with the parents and caregivers at a high level on a range of different needs and topics. Topics broadly cover:

1. Parental support
• Understanding caregivers’ personal struggles and challenges
• Answering questions around parenting
• Personal affirmations and psychosocial support
• Resource awareness: Social work services around legal systems related to childcare (access to grants, child support, foster care services, adoption, etc.)
2. Parent-child relationships
• Understanding the value and need for developing positive and stimulating relationships with the child
• Support on how to nurture this type of relationship
3. Child development
• Understanding the basics of how children develop
• Learning easy and low-resource ways of engaging in age-appropriate stimulation with the child
• What to do if they have any concerns about their children’s development

While there is structure to the programme, some parents may have immediate needs or specific questions, therefore, space is given for ad-hoc conversation about everyday struggles. Sessions are interactive to encourage engagement and participation. Group discussions and sharing circles provide a supportive environment for parents to connect and share experiences.

While parents and caregivers are engaged in discussion, children are encouraged to play with the educational toys and resources provided. Once the group conversation concludes, parents join their young children and can engage in book-sharing, reading a story or simply playing with toys on the mat, giving their child 100% of their attention, unlike at home where distractions and chores often compete for attention.

In each session, a social worker who also acts as a facilitator will lead the discussion on the assigned topic for the day. It is also her responsibility to identify parents who may need additional support with any personal issues they face. During the allocated playtime, she will have a one-on-one conversation with them. If the case is more complex, the Mikhulu Trust will refer it to our in-house social worker for further investigation and assistance.

The NCCF fulfils one main need: +65% of children under age 6 spend the majority of their early years at home with a caregiver who has little knowledge about how to effectively stimulate the child’s development. Here is further detail on this:

1. The majority of children experiencing their most accelerated years of development are not accessing support
• Approximately 65% of young children under age 6 do not attend any form of early learning or support programme.
• While attendance at early learning spaces is more common in children aged 5 – 6, based on the Thrive by Five Index (which shows that +55% of children aged 5 who are in early learning spaces are already lagging behind their developmental outcomes).
• This tells us something that we, at Mikhulu, have been advocating for years – we need to start much earlier – we need to start with children in the first thousand days (birth to ~2 years).
• In this age bracket, most children spend the majority of their time at home with a caregiver who is providing “care” but who is highly unlikely to be stimulating their development

2. Caregivers who are caring for children need support to help children develop well
• Caregivers who care for familial children, as opposed to caregivers who offer paid-for care services, typically care very well for the children.
• They don’t, however, typically know much about children’s development, such as understanding the stages of development, what critical milestones they should be aware of and what age-appropriate stimulating activities they can do with the child.
• They are also typically operating in very low resource settings with limited access to support for their caregiving activities and challenges and limited learning opportunities and resources.

3. National strategies for Early Childhood Development do not create a system where caregivers
can get support for their young children
     • When children fall ill, caregivers know that they can take them to a clinic, hospital or doctor. Similarly, when it’s time for kids to start Grade 1, caregivers know where to find a school. However, if caregivers are struggling to meet the demands of parenting, there is no designated place for them to seek assistance. Regrettably, in South Africa, we lack a system that offers a solution for all caregivers and their young children to get the support they need.

There is a need to create spaces where parents/caregivers can get support for their parenting journey, while also being able to cater to their children’s development needs and this is what the Nurturing Care Centre for Families provides.