Capricorn Foundation bolsters access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) educational materials

The Capricorn Foundation reinforced its commitment to invest in early childhood education when, on Friday, 31 May 2024, it announced the extension of its partnership with the African Child Development Trust (ACDT). The Capricorn Foundation announced an investment of another N$575 000 into printing pre-primary and grades 1 to 3 workbooks. Since 2020, the Capricorn Foundation has enabled the African Child Development Trust to enhance Early Childhood Development (ECD) through educational and development programmes, laying a solid foundation for lifelong learning.

During a visit to one of the beneficiaries, Love Your Neighbour Pre-Primary School in Windhoek, Okuryangava, Marlize Horn, Capricorn Foundation Executive Officer, thanked the African Child Development Trust for promoting inclusive education by reaching teachers and children far and wide in both rural and urban communities. “Investing in education is a cornerstone of sustainable development and a catalyst for poverty alleviation. As Connectors of Positive Change, the Capricorn Foundation is proud to partner with the ACDT to ensure no child is left behind, as access to quality education is a basic human right. Through this project, children across Namibia have access to learning resources and materials such as paper, worksheets and reading materials”.

Trudy Swartz, a teacher at the Love Your Neighbour Pre-primary School, thanked the African Child Development Trust and the Capricorn Foundation for their support. “The school receives 200 workbooks monthly, which helps us support our learners better in line with the Namibian Education Curriculum and prepare them for primary school”.

The African Child Development Trust seeks to address the social challenges related to education, including access to quality education and equity in education. Apart from the printed workbooks, their initiatives include an online learning platform featuring video lessons with sign language interpretation for hearing-impaired learners to ensure all children have access to quality education. Since 2020, the Trust, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Arts & Culture, has delivered nearly 13 million books to 14 regions in Namibia. The project provides pre-primary and junior primary materials in 11 languages, offering nine free books per semester over two semesters, covering the

curriculum from pre-primary to Grade 3. These books are quality-approved by teachers and the Namibian Institute for Educational Development (NIED).

About Capricorn Foundation:

The Capricorn Foundation is a non-profit association incorporated under Section 21 of Namibia’s Company Act and a registered Welfare Organisation (WO499). It is funded by Capricorn Group’s Namibian subsidiaries, Bank Windhoek, Capricorn Asset Management and Entrepo, and is the main driver of the Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility. Capricorn Foundation is dedicated to positively impacting communities across Namibia, focusing on education, healthcare, and social welfare initiatives.