Guest Speaker: Julie Hay

After qualifying as a Foundation Phase teacher, specialising in Remedial Reading, Julie taught for 11 years in the Junior Primary and Pre-Primary phases. After having her own children, she left the Department of Education and purchased a Toptots Mother and Child franchise in July 2000.

Her passion for Early Childhood Development (ECD) had an outlet in this programme, and she spent 10 years teaching mothers how to provide the stimulation necessary to help develop well-rounded children with a solid foundation for learning. This passion resulted in Julie being placed in the top 5 franchisees in the country for all 10 years, and first overall for 3 years.

It was during this period that she became very aware of the difference that an ECD programme was able to make to children who had many social, physical and financial advantages, and Julie wanted to bring the impact of early learning through play and exploration to children who were not so fortunate.

She decided to sell her Toptots franchise in June 2010, and launch Singakwenza, an organisation that reaches the economically disadvantaged children under the age of 4 in South Africa with a sustainable and impactful programme.

Singakwenza is in its 9^th year and has provided training for more than 140 practitioners in 36 crèche facilities. Their Waste 2 Toys programme has reached over 5 000 parents and educators, and provided opportunities for more than 100 000 children to learn through purposeful play.