SmartStart South Africa

There are currently one million children aged 3-5 years who do not have access to early learning programmes. This is the challenge that we are turning into an opportunity, so that children across South Africa – from an early age – have a better chance of success. SmartStart was founded in May 2015 to ensure that access to high quality early stimulation becomes a reality. We are starting with the poorest 40% of children aged 3 and 4 years old. We provide an effective and affordable solution that enables unemployed women and men to run their own SmartStart programmes, and that empowers parents and communities to seek out and support these quality programmes. We are also resourceful, collaborative and ambitious. This is what we seek from the women and men who we train and license, and from all the players in our network model.