With schools and early learning centres closed for the summer holiday, many children have lost access to feeding programmes and safe play spaces. For caregivers struggling to put food on the table, the community-led initiatives providing support over this period can make a world of difference. The festive season represents a time of cheer and rest for many, but for others it is rife with challenges.
Schools and early learning programmes close down for the summer holiday, taking with them access to feeding schemes and safe play spaces for many thousands of children. For some caregivers, it becomes an uphill battle just to put food on the table. Professor Eric Atmore, the director of the Centre for Early Childhood Development, pointed out that theECD Census 2021found that more than 1.6 million children were enrolled in early learning programmes across the country.
He estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 of these children were likely to be food insecure, based on the UN Children’s Fund figures stating that 23% of children in South Africa lived in severe food poverty. “Our concern with the early childhood development (ECD) centres not operating, is that those children are going to be highly vulnerable to hunger during the school holidays, because often their parents can’t replace what the ECD centre provides,” said Atmore. One ECD programme, the Khumbulani Health, Education and Resource Centre in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, usually looks after 297 children between the ages of six months and six years.
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Anathi Katsi Katsi, the project coordinator at Khumbulani, said that the closure of the centre during the holiday was challenging for caregivers who continued to work over Christmas and New Year, as well as those battling unemployment. “We’re thinking of those vulnerable children who are being exposed to the lifestyles of the holidays at this moment, and those who have nothing on their tables because remember, most of the children will come to Khumbulani because they want to have nutrition,” said Katsi Katsi. “If these programmes are now on hold due to the holidays, what are these children receiving in terms of food during the day, and who is supporting them?
Because in the Khumbulani space, they will receive psychosocial support with the care of social workers.” Khumbulani’s leaders hope to secure funding that would allow them to host a summer holiday programme for children in future, providing much-needed relief to working parents. In the meantime, they have continued to run a soup kitchen from the centre every Tuesday and Thursday. “We do notice that there are some children… from the Khumbulani aftercare programme who will come to the soup kitchen as well to have those nutritious meals,” said Katsi Katsi.
Katsi Katsi noted that a lack of safe play areas in Khayelitsha posed an additional risk to children during the holidays, with many young people resorting to playing in the streets. “When they come to Khumbalani for the soup kitchen, it opens that opportunity [for play]… as they have the playground for ECD.
While children are waiting for the soup kitchen to dish up… they will come into that space and play,” she said. Concerns about safe play areas during the summer break were also spotlighted by Nkosikhona Swartbooi, the organiser behind the Right to Play Campaign and a long-time housing activist. He noted that the schools where children usually spent most of their time could provide safe and regulated recreational activities.
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