For 12 years, Betty Mahamba worked as a diamond cutter. Moving between Cullinan and Cape Town, she spent hours cutting and polishing rough diamonds, working hard until each one glittered and reflected its maximum light.

Betty had always wanted to be a Human Resources practitioner. She loved understanding and working with people. Unfortunately, her family could not afford the high tuition fees after high school. And so, she went straight to work in the diamond industry.

Towards a different kind of diamond cutting

In 2016, Betty heard about SmartStart from a friend. SmartStart was running some activities at her local community hall. Having always loved children, Betty came along to learn more about the programme, where she was invited to attend the next SmartStart...

If you ask a young entrepreneur about their very first office, it’s not uncommon to hear the answers ‘my garage’ or ‘my bedroom’. For Luleka Nkayi though, it was her 9-year-old son’s bedroom. And it wasn’t her first office, but her first classroom.

Luleka is one of our SmartStarters from Orange Farm. From a young age, she always loved being around children. But it wasn’t until she came across SmartStart that she realised it was her calling to work full-time with them.

A 31-year-old single mother, Luleka had been working in the corporate world as a receptionist and call centre agent. After graduating from high school in Johannesburg, she took a series of short courses in marketing and financial management. While she enjoyed the work, it wasn’t what she was truly passionate...

“Whenever I meet new learners on the first day of their Start-Up training, I see HOPE. It reminds me of my first day at SmartStart. I know that if I made it to where I am today, these learners can also make it. SmartStart has empowered me and now I empower others.

I have learned about the importance of early childhood development. It MAKES a person. It shapes their lives. We are changing the world because we are preparing future leaders. We are making sure that South African children are getting what I never got as a child.”

These are the words of Zanele Ngwenya. She started her journey as an Associate...

We know how important the first 5 years of a child’s life is. That is why SmartStart aims to increase access to early learning opportunities for children aged 3 and 4 years old in order to ensure a better future for more of South Africa's children. 

But how do we find the children? To make the most impact we need to make sure we establish our SmartStart programmes in areas where there are many children, but few ECD services currently available. 

One of our franchisors, Lima Rural Development Foundation, has been making use of the Wazi Maps tool to target their programme more effectively. Liz Brouckaert (from Lima) is using the data from Wazi-map (wazimap-ecd.code4sa.org) to make detailed spreadsheets (which she calls ‘Kiddie Finders’!) to collate per ward data such as: ...