To lead a young child by the hand
WOMEN
ACHIEVERS
IN ECD GRACE THANJEKWAYO Organisation: MASAKANE TRUST
DREAMS DO COME TRUE ‘’The journey of life is an unpredictable one, and an unforge�able one. If you told me that this would be me few years ago, I wouldn’t have believed you.’’
‘’I grew up on a farm, a�ended my high school in Standerton. Unfortunately, I did not finish my high school because I got pregnant. A�er the baby was born in 1976 I got hired at a local Primary school as a private teacher teaching grade ones, a�er two years I got married I became a house wife bearing children. A�er a few years’ things got tough and I had to look for a job but my husband didn’t want me to work, he said he hates women with drivers licence and bank accounts. I decided to start a business at home where I was selling ice blocks and chips. A few months later I expanded my business to different primary schools where I would take my two babies and my stock to a school to sell during break �me. I then got the opportunity to work at Thandeka Primary school as a Grade R teacher. A�er a few months I was offered a posi�on as a principal of three pre-schools where I rotated between them to help prac��oners. The difficulty was that I had no training, so I enrolled with ABET to finish my matric. I passed and then enrolled at Springs College to do Edu care N courses. During a school trip to a nearby farm I met Mrs Suzan Lawrence who was running a pre-school on the farm. She told me about Mrs Jane Evans and the Ntataise training and said for me to do the training I needed a driver’s licence and a bank account, of which Ntataise supported me to a�ain. That is when I was hired at Masakane in 1992. That was when my journey started with Ntataise. I a�ended different courses on how children develop and learn. I would do workshops with prac��oners who couldn’t read and write on different farms. I also taught them how to make toys out of waste materials. .
Our gradua�on at GIBS for project management and ECD Level 5 diploma
A�er a while Ntataise sent me to ELRU in Cape Town. This was my first experience on the aeroplane which was overwhelming. I have done further modules in ECD with ELRU where we got trained on how to run a workshop and how adults learn. A�er the training we would implement training under the supervision of Ntataise trainers. I then registered with UNISA to further my studies got my Grade R teaching cer�ficate. I worked for Masakane Trust for many years, before I was appointed as Director in 2005. With the guidance of Ntataise and others such as Ms Giuliana Bland, Masakane transi�oned from working under a College to an independent organisa�on running our own training. In 2016 we were able to buy our own training centre that was the first �me that Masakane has its own premises, we have our own offices, as now have 267 graduates. We are able to reach approximately 12000 children around five municipali�es in Gert Sibande district in the Mpumalanga Province.”