Sappin’s growth over 2023 does not end with our legal registration and growth of the Board. We are delighted to announce that two new members, The Do More Foundation and CABC, have registered to join our organization.
The DO MORE FOUNDATION is a South African non-profit organization committed to improving the lives of young children and their families through partnerships and collective impact.
Serving as a "backbone organization," it facilitates national programs focused on nutrition, early learning, and parent/caregiver support. The foundation implements community development initiatives to bring about systemic change by providing a comprehensive set of services aligned with the National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy. Through collaboration with government, businesses, and non-profits, the foundation advocates for young children and addresses complex issues with dynamic, collaborative solutions.
One of its initiatives, the "EAT LOVE PLAY TALK" (ELPT) Parent Education Programme, engages ECD principals and practitioners in facilitating interactive sessions with parents and caregivers, addressing themes like healthy eating, building loving relationships, playful learning, and language development. The program employs a train-the-trainer model, using culturally appropriate materials to encourage small habit changes and healthier nutrition choices, ultimately fostering positive behavioural change in South African households with young children.
The representative of Do More for SAPPIN is Jessica, who is eager to get involved and has shown interest in the research component as well as the Free to Grow programme.
The Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC) was established to track and counter mis and disinformation, fake news, and divisive rhetoric that is promulgated online to undermine social cohesion, democratic integrity, and the stability of nation-states.
CABC runs the heCareZA program, which is an innovative and groundbreaking programme aimed at disrupting the harmful narratives that perpetuate intergenerational violence in South Africa. They know that “hurt people, hurt people'' (attributed to Charles Eads, 1959). Therefore, rather than trashing men, they focus on fostering constructive relationships with men, engaging them as allies, and training them in dialogue facilitation to dismantle discrimination at scale on social media and beyond.
The representative of CABC for SAPPIN will be Rinchen Van Rijswijk. Rinchen has already started to use her knowledge and skills to support SAPPIN with the Fatherhood Workshop.
SAPPIN welcomes both organisations to the network and looks forward to working with them.
After 8 years as director of The Seven Passes Initiative (SPI), Wilmi Dippenaar has resigned from her position in order to take on a full-time role as director of SAPPIN. Wilmi will be succeeded by Sive Vaaltein.
As she ends an era at SPI, Wilmi had the following to say, “What a journey it has been! I have worked for SPI for 8 years. These years have been absolutely phenomenal in my personal growth. I am grateful for all the impact the children, community members and staff had on my development and perspectives as a human being. I will forever be in the debt of the people from Touwsranten. I also believe that my work at SPI prepared me for the next phase at SAPPIN.”
As she steps into her role as director of SAPPIN, she is looking forward to connecting with the different member organisations, building relationships and trust and becoming aware of themes that connect us. She wants to work to address these connections and actively support collaborations where she can. She is also looking forward to working more closely with the extended network of the Community of Practice that was established earlier in the year in the Western Cape. SAPPIN’s hope is to learn from this CoP and eventually be able to duplicate this model in other provinces with the support of SAPPIN members.
SAPPIN has grown so quickly and our voice has become important in the parenting world during the last couple of years. For the network to have a full-time person will ensure that we can do more, deliver better quality services and support organisations. Having a focused leader will allow us to reach more people, and engage more with government, researchers and the private sector and we will be able to be part of securing a future for all who live in South Africa by helping families create warm and non-violent homes for children.
As of the 1st of September 2023, you can contact Wilmi with any queries regarding SAPPIN on wilmi@sappin.org.za
We wish Wilmi much success in bringing about change in her new role.
On 7th June, Thandi van Heyningen (Institute for Security Studies), who is a member of the SAPPIN research committee, presented at the International Congress on Evidence-Based Parenting Support (I-CEPS; 6th-8th June), a virtual conference which was presented by the Parenting and Family Research Alliance (PAFRA).
Thandi presented the latest SAPPIN paper, which focuses on exploring the practical implications of the evidence-based agenda in South African parenting programme delivery. Drawing on results from focus group discussions with SAPPIN members, this presentation outlined the challenges of the evidence-based approach to programme roll-out and funding in South Africa. Alternative and additional standards for quality programme implementation were also discussed, including the use of evidence-informed and evidence-led interventions and practice-based evidence.
Co-authored with Nicki Dawson and Wilmi Dippenaar, the article will soon be submitted for peer review. Be sure to look out for the publication.
SAPPIN is proud to announce that we are in the process of registering to be classified as a legal entity, which will afford us more opportunities to gain funding to do the important work that we set out to do.
The papers are in and we are eagerly awaiting feedback from the government to be able to fully operate on our own.
The following people were kind enough to volunteer their time and expertise to become board members of SAPPIN:
We thank this team for all their efforts and are excited to be able to (hopefully soon) announce our new status, allowing us to embark on a new phase in the life of SAPPIN.
SAPPIN driver group members Kaathima Ebrahim and Wilmi Dippenaar recently represented SAPPIN on the National Intersectoral Forum (ISF) on Early Childhood Development as part of the “Social Protection and Parenting” sub-committee.
The ISF is a forum bridging civil society and government role players in ECD and is made up of several sub-committees including:
The ISF was previously hosted by the National Department of Social Development (DSD) but was handed over to the National Department of Basic Education (DBE) in April 2022, when the ECD function shifted from DSD to DBE.
The first Social Protection sub-committee meeting for the year was held in February. Here the sub-committee’s Terms of Reference (TOR), which guides what work the sub-committee will do for the year, were discussed in order to get it finalized.
Updates from the DSD on the National Parenting Programme were shared as well as updates on Hope Worldwide’s Caregiver Learning Through Play parenting programme.
The next meeting will be held in April 2023.