“A child with at least one responsive and stimulating caregiver grows up to be more resilient, achieves better at school, is healthier and has better life chances.”

The Mikhulu Child Development Trust supports parents to create nurturing, responsive and stimulating relationships with their young children (under the age of six). Our goal is to help parents and caregivers throughout their parenting journey so that they can meaningfully bond with their children in a way that improves their children’s development and well-being.

What we offer to parents:

• Book-sharing for Fathers
• Introduction to book-sharing at clinics and libraries,
• Book-sharing training courses with local NPOs,
• The provision of wordless picture books and
• Holistic support on parenting challenges through the cellphone-based WhatsApp platform, ‘Parentline SA.’

If book-sharing as an early literacy intervention can build positive relationships between mothers and their children, the hypothesis is it can have the same effect on fathers, potentially helping to reduce the cycle of intergenerational violence. The gap in father-child relationships is a critical issue that initiatives like Mikhulu Trust’s Ixesha lam noTata (“My Time with Dad”) programme aim to address, by encouraging positive, active father involvement in early childhood development.

Following research on fatherhood—a project involving Mikhulu Trust, UCT, and Sonke Gender Justice—our programme was adjusted to make it better suited to fathers. Some of the changes made include the following:

• Our wordless picture books were developed and reworked to emphasise positive male role models.
• Training materials were updated to include videos and photos of men demonstrating book-sharing techniques.
• The “Book-sharing for Families” programme was renamed Ixesha lam noTata or “My Time with
  Dad” and informally called “Book-sharing for Fathers.”
• The 10–30-month programme for children was adapted for 20-30-month children.

Although the study yielded no significant quantitative results, feedback from fathers highlighted the programme’s value in fostering stronger relationships with their children, warranting broader implementation.

Mikhulu Trust trained facilitators from four community-based organizations (CBOs) operating in violence hotspots* in Cape Town. These organizations had experience supporting men in discussions about fatherhood and their personal experiences of being fathered.

Qualitative data from participating fathers revealed positive feedback, demonstrating significant shifts in attitudes toward discipline and emphasising the programme’s potential impact.

Benefits of book-sharing with Fathers

The “My Time with Dad” programme focuses on book-sharing skills, while also providing fathers a space to discuss fatherhood challenges. Book-sharing topics have been known to trigger other concerns that fathers want to talk about, such as:

• How they were fathered, the impact that this had on their lives, and
• How they perceived their roles as fathers.
• Not being allowed access to their children either by the mother or extended family

Feedback from fathers outside the initial research shows positive shifts in behaviour and family relationships. Many fathers report spending more time engaging with their children in meaningful ways, such as solving puzzles, playing games, and talking more during playtime. They’ve also begun incorporating activities that introduce numbers, colours, and words, moving from rough play to more interactive and educational interactions, which has strengthened their connection with their children. Very importantly, book-sharing has reportedly changed fathers’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards violence.

Taking book-sharing into the workplace

Following the successful implementation of “My time with Dad” within CBOs, we took the programme to the next level by targeting the formal workplace. The programme proved successful not only for the fathers but also brought significant benefits to the employer. This included improved, and more confident communication skills, engaging in more frequent interactions, and expressing gratitude towards the company for providing the opportunity tailored specifically for fathers.

The role of early childhood interventions in reducing aggression

Violent behaviours in adolescence and adulthood are rooted in early childhood, making active, supportive parenting critical to long-term behavioural outcomes. Studies also show a link between absent fathers and gender-based violence – another societal scourge in South Africa.

Did you know that humans are the most aggressive at just two years old? At this stage, children are still learning impulse control and may act out when their needs aren’t met. Supporting young children in managing and overcoming these impulses is a vital step in preventing violent behaviour later on. Research has established that child aggression is a key precursor of violence.

Dialogic book-sharing is a simple, brief and scalable intervention shown to reduce both the parenting and early child risk factors for the development of violence.

*Violence hotspots as defined by the provincial government

The Western Cape Department of Health (WDOH) runs the First Thousand Days (FTD) programme for pregnant mothers and those who have children under the age of two. Throughout the FTD, these mothers visit clinics for check-ups at set intervals and receive home visits from community-health workers.

The WDOH has also started integrating elements of parental support on early stimulation as part of the FTD programme. During home visits, community health-workers introduce mothers to concepts of early stimulation and book-sharing. This serves as an introduction only – and mothers learn, at a high level, how to be more reciprocal with their babies. They also learn about the benefits of early stimulation and learn skills on how to use wordless picture-books to do book-sharing with.

If you live in the Western Cape and you are pregnant or have a child under the age of two, ask your local clinic or home visitor about book-sharing.

Once community-health workers introduce FTD mothers to book-sharing, they can also refer those mothers to their local libraries to attend a more intensive book-sharing course. You can find a list of libraries offering book-sharing courses here.

These local libraries do not only offer the book-sharing courses to FTD mothers. Any caregivers of young children can sign up to join the book-sharing course. To find out more about what the course offers, and how it is structured, you can read more here.

The work with the clinics and libraries is a start at creating a community response for supporting parents and caregivers of young children. The intention is to identify spaces in society that serve parents of young children and we have started with the clinics and libraries. As the programme expands, we will expand the book-sharing introduction course to other social services offered to families.

Mikhulu Trust offers a more intensive training course to caregivers who want to learn the full book-sharing skillset that can be used with their young children. We offer this course to parents through community-based NPOs located across four provinces in South Africa.

There are three versions of the programme, according to the child’s age:

• Book-sharing for Babies, for families of children aged 1 – 2,
• Book-sharing for Toddlers, for families of children aged 2 – 3 and
• Book-sharing for Young Children, for families of children aged 3 – 5.