Moffat Mission 9 December 2000 Dear friends: Our work involves putting people in touch with resources which they may need in order to provide more effective leadership in their churches or communities. The resources may be knowledge, skill, material or personal. Sometimes we have given resources, but more often we have pointed people to how and/or where they might acquire them. Carol and her colleagues have conducted a project during the past year which has put pre- school teachers in touch with resources to help them provide better early learning experiences for children. The aims of the project were: - to introduce pre-school teachers to libraries and their resources, - to acquire resources for the Robert Moffat Library which would be of use to pre-school teachers and - to produce some new resources in Setswana. The project began with visits to pre-schools in villages in the Kuruman-Kudumane district. Lorato Trok (assistant librarian) and Juanita Mabilu (project assistant) went out into the district in Juanita's little pickup truck on repeated trips over bumpy gravel roads in search of teachers who might see the value of the proposed project. Thirty eight teachers signed up to come to two one-day training events. A further 20 people, family field workers, equipping marginalised families to enrich the education and development of their children were also recruited. The participants were scheduled to come in groups of ten. The first training day was held at the Robert Moffat Library. The teachers were shown the books available in the library and oriented to using libraries. There was also basic instruction in how to care for books (wash your hands, turn pages correctly, protect the spine, etc) so that the teachers would know and could teach the children, too. The training also tapped internal resources - motivation, pride in their work and a desire to learn and teach more. The teachers were registered as members of the Library and encouraged to borrow some of the newly acquired books. There are other libraries in our area, the most important being the Kuruman Public Library. Juanita, Lorato and Carol organized the second training day at the Public Library and involved the staff there, Elna Greyling (librarian) and Errion Thibogang (assistant librarian). The teachers were oriented to the 4,000 children's books and other resources in the library. They were registered as users of the Kuruman Public Library and encouraged to make use of it. The Robert Moffat Library had practically nothing for pre-school teachers or children when the project began. Carol consulted organizations specializing in early childhood development and publishers. Decisions were made and materials ordered: books for teachers, lesson planning kits for teachers, story books, science books, posters, magazines and newsletters. Three books identified as particularly valuable for teachers and parents of young children were translated into Setswana by Juanita and Lorato. They were duplicated in Setswana and English - the first publications of the Robert Moffat Library. Since some of the first things printed on the mission press were for teaching purposes, the books seemed an appropriate first project. The initial idea for the project came from our former director, Steve de Gruchy. The funding was provided by the Jim Joel Education and Training Fund. The fund invests R8 million a year in non-governmental and community-based organisations that support early childhood development. We hope that the other R 7,950,000 produces results comparable to those resulting from the R 50,000 which they invested in our project. Although most of the teachers knew of the existence of libraries, most of them had never been to either the Kuruman or Moffat libraries. None of them had ever borrowed a book from a library. Now they are registered borrowers, have borrowed books, have been stimulated and encouraged, and they have been put in touch with colleagues in others pre-schools and communities. Before Juanita and Lorato went off in the little red pickup to recruit teachers for the project, they made lists of pre-schools and teachers they knew about. Those who participated are a small portion of the teachers out there in the villages. We are working on a program proposal that will provide further library-based enrichment opportunities for pre-school teachers. In South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, early childhood learning is crucial for the nurturing of people who will become caring creative adults. Yours faithfully, Lawrence C Gilley Return to index page