Turning trash into treasure
Learning how to teach their pupils about basic business, Zikhona Diya and Happiness Zulu, Early Childhood Development owners, partnered with the Domino Foundation. They have learned how to turn recyclables into saleable items and they now teach young children how to turn this into a business opportunity
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Former school principal Scilla Edmonds has had decades of experience in pre-schooling.
Since 2023, she has been collaborating with Teach A Man To Fish, provider of practical experiential entrepreneurship education for young people, in partnership with The Saville Foundation.
In 2012, Ms Edmonds opened an opportunity for her young pupils at Birches Pre-Primary School in Pinetown, west of Durban, to be part of the School Enterprise Challenge, an educational programme teaching business and life skills. Now she leads the Early Years Enterprise (EYE) with the organisation to help preschool teachers raise learners’ environmental awareness and put in place basic entrepreneurial skills.
The EYE, which Ms Edmonds facilitates, runs on four Saturdays over three months. Here teachers learn how to teach their small charges, to make products from recyclables. The children learn the value of money and the setting up a profitable school business.
“It’s a win-win,” said Ms Edmonds. “The children begin to understand that there is a value attached to what they would otherwise have thrown away. They develop creativity and business skills; the parents become involved in their offspring’s education and also become more aware of environmental issues. As a bonus – it is a wonderful source of fundraising through products being sold at school events and markets.”
Two of the participants on the course running at the moment are owners of Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres partnering with the Domino Foundation.
Happiness Zulu and Zikhona Diya have been part of the NPO’s ECD team and are now running their own schools and are adding to their skill-sets through EYE. They have already completed courses in small business development.
“This is valuable entrepreneurial training which I can teach to the children in my pre-school. They can learn to make money, save it and use it wisely,” said Ms Zulu.
Ms Diya added that the children were enjoying learning how to make things from recyclables.
“We are also learning about how to teach the children communication, fine motor and counting skills. These are all important even when you are a very young business person,” she said.
Ms Edmonds said this initiative had been so well subscribed, that further Enterprise training will be available later in the year. She invited pre-school and pre-primary teachers interested in the training to look out for more details.