Childcare South Africa

Eldorado Park Women's Group Organise Childcare

The Eldorado Park Women's group is organising! Four years ago they started a child care project in their area. Today they take care of 100 children at the mosque, the Muslim place of prayer, in Extension 1 of Eldorado Park. They have three smaller groups of children in classes run in houses in other parts of Eldorado Park. And they are sharing their ideas about running childcare projects with women in other areas.

We met Mallie, one of the members of the Women's Group, at her house in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg.We asked Mallie how the Women's Group had started. She told us, "One woman from the area decided to get a women's group together. She called meetings but only five women kept coming. We decided not to wait on others. We saw that people did not want to join a group that just had meetings and said please join us. We saw that if there was something concrete people would be more interested and get involved. So the five of us decided to start small and show people what we could do."

The women wanted to do something for the children in the area. There were very few nursery schools. Children of preschool age were playing on the streets. So they decided to start a childcare project.

Mallie is a teacher. She had taught small children for 18 years. She was able to bring ideas to the group. The women planned. They needed a place to run their classes. They needed teachers. And they needed money to pay the teachers. Mallie, and two other members of the group, Abeda and Nisa, were willing to teach. The women knew that the mosque nearby had classrooms which were used every afternoon. But these rooms were empty all morning. "Why not ask the Muslim Council who owns this building?" the women thought. So Mallie approached someone she knew on the Muslim Council and was able to get the use of the classrooms next to the mosque for about four hours every morning. The group was lucky that this did not cost them anything.

But money was needed to pay the teachers and for things like crayons, paper, paints, books and toys. The women approached friends who were willing to lend some money. One husband gave part of his salary to the group every month. And so they were able to start their first classes. It was not easy. The teachers did not always get paid. But the project was started. Some parents were able to pay for their children. But others were unemployed or earning too little. They were allowed to send their children free of charge.

Over the years the number of classes run by the group has grown. And the group has become involved in other struggles in the area. Most of the people in Eldorado Park are workers in shops and factories in and around Johannesburg. There are many problems, like unemployment, low wages, not enough housing. The Women's Group has had to find a way of dealing with some of these problems. For example, sometime last year the children were coming to classes looking tired and hungry. The teachers found that many parents had lost their jobs. The teachers got together to prepare sandwiches for the children.

Then a few years ago they found that the government had moved families from their shacks in a place called Chicken Farm and put them in tents in Eldorado Park. The Women's Group worked with women in the tents to start classes for children there. They worked with the housing committee to fight for proper housing. Today these families live in a part of Eldorado Park called Extension 10.

The Women's Group works closely with the community and with other organisations like the Advice Centre, the Progressive Teachers Union, the youth group and the housing committees.

The child care project

Mallie took us to the classes at the mosque in Extension 1. The children were drawing and happily talking to each other and the teachers. There were smiles and lots of happy noises. While we were there they had their lunch and then they played with toys. They were learning at the same time as they were playing and enjoying themselves.

The Women's Group decided to start classes in other parts of Eldorado Park so that many more children could benefit as well. But there were no other classrooms to be found. So the women started classes wherever they could. They had classes in the tents when people were living there, outside in the open, and in the front rooms of people's houses. So while some families are out working, their homes become classrooms for young children. Abeda, a member of the Women's Group who was one of the first teachers, takes toys and food to these house classes every day.

There are two classes in houses in Extension 10. We went with Mallie to the houses where these classes are run. Here we met more happy children, playing and learning together. Jesse Stuart, one of the teachers said: "We didn't know how to run these classes. But the Women's Group gave us ideas." The children here pay R3.00 a week if they can afford this. The money goes to the person who owns the house to cover the cost of electricity.

The third house class is in another part of Eldorado Park called Heavenly Valley. In fact this class is not in the house at all really. The children are usually outside with their teacher. On our way to Heavenly Valley, Mallie said, "The name Heavenly Valley will make you think it is a very beautiful place. But wait till you see it." The houses are made of very thin material. They are what people call ZOZO houses. Houses that can be lifted up and moved easily. And some years back the council did just this. They decided that Heavenly Valley should be moved. And so they came with trucks and moved the shacks to where Heavenly Valley stands today. People here used to live in Chicken Farm. They were moved to these houses as temporary accommodation. But they have been living in these shacks for the past 15 years. There are 34 shacks here. There is no electricity, and water has to be fetched from outside.

None of the teachers at the Women's Group childcare projects had been to school to learn preschool training. They had all learnt on the job and from workshops run by Mallie and Abeda. Most of them worked in furniture or clothing factories before. One worked as a cleaner and one was at home busy with her own children and housework.

Teaching hope and to make ourselves heard

The Women's Group, the teachers and the parents together spend much time working out what to teach the children. They see the school as preparing the children for a new South Africa. They want the children to learn to respect themselves. To share with each other. And to see all people as equal. They have made their own stories and songs for the children. They feel that the songs and stories children usually see in books and get from schools make children feel inferior. Very few stories are about working class or black people. Very few stories show women and girls as strong people who can do things with their lives.

The Women's Group say,"Stories usually tell of a beautiful white girl with there long golden hair and the prince who comes to rescue her. The girl is shown as helpless. And the boy is shown as the brave hero. We are trying from an early age to prepare our children. These little girls are going to be women one day. We want them to learn to take control of their lives. We want them to believe in themselves as human beings. Many of the old stories do not teach sharing. Instead they encourage children to compete against each other." So the Women's Group and the teachers decided to write their own poems and stories and to make their own games. The games are not about who can win and beat the others. Instead they show the importance of sharing and working together. One of the songs the children sing goes like this:

Listen, listen to the children Listen, listen to the children If they sing their song You can sing along If they sing their song You can sing along Listen, you know they believe in freedom Listen, you know they believe in freedom They say look, see, listen to us. Look, see, listen to us.

The teachers make sure that they treat girls and boys the same. Boys and girls play with dolls. Mallie said, "Because we want the boys to learn that they will have to look after babies one day too. And when we have cooking once a week we teach the boys and the girls how to cook."

The Women's Group has regular meetings with the parents. They discuss the running of the childcare project. And
other problems in the area and the rest of the country are discussed at parents meetings as well. "In the so-called Coloured community people are unaware," Mallie told us, "Women would say 'No don't speak politics to me.' We need to make people aware that politics is everything. If we want proper houses its politics. If we want decent education for our children its politics. We looked at education. We told people how many children were failing in the first year of school. And we asked why. It's because of not enough money. No proper housing. Not enough jobs. We are concerned about what is going on in the country and we are also concerned about what happens to people."

The women's group is concerned about the problems people face in Eldorado Park. Problems like high rents, poor housing, unemployment, low wages. They believe these things will improve when people have more say over their lives. This is why they decided that as a group they will work for a time when people won't be judged by the colour of their skin, by whether they are men or women. And a time when all people will have the same rights. This is why they have joined the Federation of Transvaal Women (FEDTRAW) which is an organisation that brings women together from different areas to fight for their rights as people, workers and women.

Since the childcare projects in Eldorado Park were going so well women from other groups that belong to FEDTRAW decided to start classes in their areas as well. So FEDTRAW has started workshops run by women from Eldorado Park. Women from about 15 different areas go to these workshops every week. Here they discuss how to run a childcare project and how to involve the community in this. And what to teach them for a new world of hope and freedom. Many women arc now writing stories of a different kind for children.

Source: SPEAK Issue No. 21 Sept Nov 1988, SPEAK Collective 3rd Floor, MGM House 127a Anderson Street Johannesburg, South Africa