Bonita Daniels founded The Early Education Center (TEEC) in 2009, intent on having a positive impact on her community. She continues to empower adults and children through the TEEC projects. These projects promote engagement within the community, teacher training and provide quality learning experiences for young children.
Bonita’s Story
The TEEC came to be through Bonita Daniels’ desire to affect change in the lives of people in Cloetsville. She couldn’t ignore the gap between those who could afford to send their children to preschool and those who couldn’t. With kindness in mind, Bonita spent two hours a week loaning toys to some of the children who often aimlessly roamed the streets of Cloetsville. On one of these days, a woman bluntly expressed that she too wanted to send her kids to preschool – just like ‘these people’ who came and went through their township. Bonita was deeply affected by the woman’s words because, although she was harsh, she was right.
Creating Change
Mahatma Gandhi said “you must be the change you wish to see in the world.” With these words in mind, Bonita was called to accept her privilege and decided to do something to affect change in the community around her. She coined her own saying: “when you say yes to education, yes to dedication, you can make a positive impact on the community.” With motivation from her husband and parents, Bonita registered a legal entity. The TEEC aims to create a change for those children playing and living on the streets.
Connecting people and purpose
Bonita’s weekly gatherings with the children eventually led to the registration of creches and creating an expansion of services that Bonita and her colleagues could offer. What started as a toy library has evolved into what is now TEEC. Involved in all kinds of projects, TEEC has engineered the empowerment of various communities. From quality learning experiences for children to training for teachers, TEEC has touched many lives.
Community
Early childhood development (ECD) programmes work with young children, from infancy to the age of nine years, as well as with their parents or primary caregivers. This stage of a child’s life is vital to personal and social development. The goal of these programmes is to enhance that development as much as possible.
TEEC projects challenge parents/caregivers to play a more active role in their childrens’ development. They also offer empowering training to teachers and provide children with significant learning experiences. There are also volunteer programmes for those who would like to volunteer at the centers.
Bonita believes that the most important factor for success is education, and she is playing it forward through TEEC.