Milestone Day Care

Milestone Day Care (MDC) is an Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre providing day care services for children aged 1–5 years from Mpolweni, KZN.

MDC is a registered Non-Profit Organisation: NPO ref 283-382

Access to good quality early childhood development is very limited in Mpolweni, the rural community where most of our employees live. While employees work full-time, their young children had previously been looked after by a relative or friend during working hours, or sent to live elsewhere on weekdays. These children were subsequently very underprepared for school and often on the back foot for the remainder of their schooling.

Motivated by the overwhelming research highlighting how important good quality early years developmental care is in shaping the trajectory of a child's development and future, Milestone Kitchens opened Milestone Day Care on the 1st of September 2022.

Objectives

Main objectives:

• Provide high-quality childcare to the children of Milestone Kitchens' employees and other families from Mpolweni in a dedicated, on-site creche during working hours.
• Improve daily nutrition and access to early educational care for children in rural communities.
• Improve the early developmental skills, school readiness and future educational outcomes of the children of Mpolweni.

Secondary objectives:

• Support the skills development and employment of people from the local community by creating childcare jobs.

Current financial condition

The day care charges a monthly fee of R290 to parents to cover food and thereafter relies solely on donations and fundraisers to cover improvements and fixed expenses. It is, however, essential that alternative funding streams are identified in order for this project to be sustained over time. Response in the local community to the opening of the day care has been overwhelmingly positive, with requests for spaces far outnumbering the current capacity.

Admission requests received daily illustrate that the need for pre-school services in the community is high.

Goal

Our goal is to secure sufficient funding to ensure that Milestone Day Care can continue to provide access to high-quality early childcare for the children in our community. Our current priority is to raise funds to create a purpose-built nursery space on Milestone Farm. This will allow us to significantly enhance the quality of learning opportunities we can deliver and extend our reach by offering more nursery spaces.

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