Umncedi

The Umncedi team recently visited 12 ECD centres in Tohoyandou after the floods in Limpopo 💔 A big thank you to Thovhedzo Deon Mungadi from Legacy Giving for travelling with us and supporting this important work.

Many centres are badly damaged with broken roofs, cracked walls and unsafe sanitation. Some centres may have to close and others have already lost children because roads are destroyed and flooded.

Some roads are so damaged they look like canyons, making it hard to reach these communities.

We have set up a relief fund to support these ECD centres and help them recover 🙏
But the damage is bigger than what the fund can cover.

We are looking for partners who can assist us in supporting these centres and rebuilding safe spaces for children.

Together, we can make a difference ❤️

Today is International Day of Happiness, in celebration, we ran an exciting competition and received amazing responses!🎉Thank you to all the ECD Centres who participated! 🙌

To celebrate, we’ll be sharing the themes submitted by ECDs across the network.🤾‍♀️

Themes are important because they make learning fun, meaningful, and help children explore the world through play. What exciting themee do you do at your ECD Centre?👪🤾‍♀️

We are inviting teachers, educators, ECD practitioners, and teaching assistants to join our *short WhatsApp training* called *'EARS'*. It will help you to support children who may be struggling to hear 👂

Tap the link ⬇️ and send the word 'UMNCEDI' to join!
https://wa.me/27878134013?text=UMNCEDI

COMPETITION TIME!!!🎉🎉🎉
20 March 2026 is International Day of Happiness! 😊

To spread the joy, Umncedi, in collaboration with the The Do More Foundation is giving away 2 DUPLO PlayBoxes to two lucky ECD Centres!

HOW TO ENTER:
1.Take a picture of your favourite Theme Table, Theme Corner or Theme Wall
2. Post it in the comments of this post
3. Share this post and ask your friends, family, and community to vote by pressing the 👍 Like button

The 2 pictures with the most likes will each win a DUPLO PlayBox to support learning and teaching at their ECD Centre! 🎉

Competition closes: 15 March 2026
Winners announced: 20 March 2026 – International Day of Happiness on our page!🕺💃🏿 Winners will be contacted individually for their delivery addresses.

📌 Don’t forget:

Include your name and Centre name in your picture

🚫 No faces of children or personal details may be shared

Why win a PlayBox?

PlayBoxes support key domains of development:
• Social-emotional
• Cognitive
• Physical
• Language
• Play & Creativity

Benefits of block play:
✔ Enhances gross and fine motor skills
✔ Improves attention and problem-solving
✔ Encourages creativity and imagination
✔ Builds spatial awareness
✔ Supports social-emotional growth
✔ Promotes maths and science skills
✔ Develops early engineering skills

To read more about the PlayBoxes, visit:
🔗 https://www.carefored.co.za/play-box-resources

Let’s celebrate happiness through play! 🌟

Spend the day with us, we are Little Shine Day and After Care Centre in Dospan Village. A thread👇🏾

At Umncedi, we believe even the smallest hearts can understand big lessons.💪🏾

Teaching young children about important issues like HIV & AIDS may feel overwhelming but it doesn’t have to be. With the right approach, we can nurture awareness, compassion and safety from an early age.

We keep the message simple, gentle and age-appropriate, ensuring our children learn in a way that empowers rather than frightens them. ❤️

If you’d like to begin educating young children on these topics, you can use trusted tools like the UNICEF HIV/AIDS Teacher’s Guide to support your conversations here:https://healtheducationresources.unesco.org/sites/default/files/resources/bie_jaws_teacher_guide.pdf

Together, we are raising informed, confident and kind young Africans. ✨

At Umncedi, we believe that real change starts with listening and that’s exactly what we did at the City of Cape Town’s second ECD Indaba.

As an ECD Resources Hub, we had the opportunity to connect with amazing ECD Principals and practitioners, hear about the incredible work they do, the challenges they face, and what support is most needed in the sector.

These conversations are what guide our work, helping us create resources and information that are shaped by the people we serve. 🤝🏽

A big thank you to the City of Cape Town for hosting such an engaging and insightful event. We left feeling inspired and even more committed to strengthening the ECD ecosystem together!

We were honoured to be part of an inspiring roundtable hosted by Edu Invest, powered by Wesgro, in partnership with the Western Cape Education Department and Ubuntu Education Hub’s ECD Network.

Representing Umncedi ECD Forum Network, Tobeka Ratya, Chairperson of the Khayelitsha ECD Forum (which supports over 300 ECD Centres) joined the panel to share her daily experiences, the joys and the many challenges faced by ECD practitioners on the ground.

Tobeka highlighted how municipal by-laws, designed with suburban contexts in mind often make it impossible for township ECD centres to meet requirements, such as needing 20 parking bays when families walk their children to school. These challenges prevent many centres from registering, missing out on vital DBE subsidies and relying on inconsistent fees to stay afloat.

The event brought together ECD investors, practitioners, leaders, policymakers, researchers and innovators all working to strengthen South Africa’s Early Childhood Development sector.

Alongside Tobeka, ECD principals from Manenberg and Mitchells Plain also shared their experiences echoing the need for realistic policies, accessible professional development, and stronger support systems for educators who are doing such critical work for our youngest learners.

We’re proud to see Umncedi represented in these important conversations ensuring that the voices of practitioners continue to shape the future of ECD in South Africa. 💪🏽❤️

Join us as we launch the first (of many) in a series of newly created digital resources, designed for all those working with and for young children. Affectionately called "Learning Bytes", this series and its supporting webinars aim to expand access to high-quality information and resources for everyone in the early childhood development (ECD) community.

Register and join us via Zoom https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9itxB3ZcQja46dr-ifD8dw

Please RSVP by Friday, 26th, we are limited to 500 seats!!!

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: UMNCEDI LEARNING BYTES: Launch Webinar on New Digital Resources. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Umncedi exists to connect people working with young children to good quality information and resources. Join us as we launch the first (of many) in a series of newly created digital resources, designed for all those working with and for young children. Affectionately called “Learning Bytes”, thi...