Play to Learn 12-month extension
In 2024, As part of the 12-month extension, we amplified two key activities to help sustain the impact of the work done over the past five years and help maintain the momentum of the Learning Through Play movement in 4 provinces; Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Free State & KwaZulu Natal. The focus was on:
- Enhancing the Takalani Sesame WhatsApp Chatbot – to become a powerful and playful learning platform that supports children’s home-based learning at scale.
- Learning Through Play Advocacy Activities – to advocate for learning through play, affirming the importance of play in children’s development, and how Takalani Sesame “Play to Learn ” project can effectively help fulfil important objectives among key governmental and community stakeholders. These include:
- Four key Government Stakeholders workshops in 4 provinces
- One key stakeholder workshop with media/ broadcast partners
- Three “Play festivals” with parents and children
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Target – 80 Reached – 90 DoE officials
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Target – 50 Reached – 52 media stakeholder
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Target – 900 Reached – 960 parents and caregivers
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Target – 900 Reached – 1016 children
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SWISA welcomes Dr. Onyinye (Onyi) Nwaneri as the new Managing Director for South Africa.
Dr. Onyi assumed her position as the new Managing Director of the South African office on 13 January 2025. In her first week, she participated in an interview with local radio station 919FM, where she expressed her enthusiasm for the role and her favourite muppets! During the interview, Onyi spoke about the plans to address pressing challenges in early childhood development and programs to empower communities through our outreach programms.
Listen to the podcast here: Dr. Onyi on 919FM – Radio Podcast
OAK Social Media Campaign:
In August 2024, South Africa launched the Social Media Campaign under the OAK Foundation grant. The campaign ran for a duration of 3 months from the 12th of August to the 12th of November. The campaign aimed to transform gender norms and promote positive parenting practices among fathers in South Africa by encouraging fathers to embrace play, challenge harmful gender roles, and adopt positive parenting behaviours. The #BondThroughPlay campaign name and the preceding content linked closely to the Theory of Change outcome, “Male caregivers experience more confidence and joy in playing with their children”
The campaign was a video-led digital campaign, it included Public Relations and Influencer Marketing. We met and exceeded the set KPIs for Paid Media Views and Impressions with 33 short and long videos published.
Takalani Sesame Season 15 Premiers on SABC 2
The new season of Takalani Sesame has launched on SABC 2 as of December 9th. In this new season, the Takalani Sesame Muppets learn about how all children can play together no matter if they are a boy or a girl. In each episode the Muppets will play games with their friends, but inevitably they encounter a problem that challenges their idea of what is okay for boys or girls to do. The show airs on SABC 2 at 3pm weekdays SAST.
