Image of Monja Boonzaier
Monja Boonzaier founded the non-profit organisation in 2019. Tracking back a bit, the organisation essentially started off as a community service project in 2018 and served as Boonzaier’s Chava Shelhav Child’Space training in Amsterdam. The project was part of a scholarship agreement, as she had to teach what she had learned to the community. Her humanitarian spirit naturally led her to give life to the project, hoping that many people would be helped. She is the first and only Child’Space practitioner in the African continent.
The inspiration for Hamba Bamba Funda blossomed when Boonzaier paid a visit to the Kliptown Community Pre-school in Soweto. Upon seeing the pre-school, Boonzaier walked into a room full of twenty-seven babies between the ages of one month old and two years, and all those babies were being taken care of by one caregiver.
“The babies were being taken care of physically, but there was no interaction or stimulation,” Boonzaier commented.
It was apparent that something had to be done to alleviate the stress experienced by both the children and the caregiver. Upon seeing the lack of interaction with the babies, Boonzaier decided that training caregivers to support the children’s development was in need, and that led to the creation of Hamba Bamba Funda (HBF).
“The decision to build the organisation in Kliptown, Soweto was not a conscious one. Rather it happened spontaneously during a trip to Soweto as a tourist with Jewish journalist and photographer, Ilan Ossendryver. On the trip, I was introduced to Bob Nameng, the community leader. He then introduced me to the principal of the Kliptown Community pre-school. From there, the need for the foundation just grew stronger,” states Boonzaier.
As a non-profit organisation, it is quite difficult to obtain funding. However, the work that the organisation is doing does not only help older mothers, but it also helps young mothers as there are many young mothers from the ages of fifteen and up in the community. The organisation was awarded a grant from the Local Initiative Fund-South Africa (LIFSA) for an ECD project known as the ‘Early Childhood Education Training for Parents and Guardians in underprivileged communities’. In addition to that, in 2022, the German Embassy funded them with modular classrooms. The organisation has a training centre based in Dobsonville.
One of her clients has premises in Dobsonville CTM and has allowed the classrooms to be held there. The premises are close to the Dobsonville taxi rank, which makes it easily accessible. Some townships do not have access to the classes and the organisation has taken it upon itself to drive the mothers to the centre. However, the organisation needs more funding to continue their work.
Monja and the caregivers
“We are facing a big problem of how to get transport to these mothers, especially in the rural areas. There is such a big need to help the young mothers there. They are as young as thirteen and the next step is to access the young mothers when they fall pregnant. If we get them to join our sessions, they will be prepared when they give birth,” states Boonzaier.
Boonzaier is so passionate about the work she does and sees that not enough attention is focused on children younger than two-year-old when it comes to their development. In South Africa, currently, Early Childhood programmes start from two years old and upwards. This leaves the younger ones to develop on their own when it is vital that childhood development should begin at soon as possible so that when the child grows up, they have learned the necessary lessons that will enable them to do well in school and life as children. Hamba Bamba Funda’s accredited programmes strictly start from birth, which ensures that the support that the child is given will last for a lifetime.
Their 9-month partial SETA accreditation program covers three important modules that are integral to their full accreditation, and anyone interested in pursuing a career in early childhood development. The modules are Describing How to manage reactions from a traumatic event (SAQA 1149420, Work with Families to Support Early Childhood Development (SAQA 244462), and Facilitate the Holistic Development of babies, toddlers, and young children (SAQA 244480).
Boonzaier aims for the organisation to help as many communities as possible and being recognised is not easy. However, her determination has proven fruitful. Recently, the Local Initiative Fund (LIFSA) an initiative of the Government of the Principality of Monaco in partnership with the Alliance Française of Johannesburg funded the organisation. This is with the support of the NGO ILLIS as well as the Swiss Embassy in South Africa, this helps the Hamba Bamba Funda Organisation to offer a formally recognised “Further Education Training Certificate in Early Childhood Development”.
Members from Tour Soweto in Kliptown with the German Delegation of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
“The program we offer actively supports and enables the involvement of parents and caregivers through a range of activities. These activities include sensory awareness development, movement, touch, play, and song. The mother and baby classes involve hands-on techniques from ‘The Chava Shelhav Child Space Method’ such as “shaya-shaya” (tapping) and “bamba yeka” (squeezing),” Boonzaier explains.
The hands-on techniques help map the body parts to the child’s brain and assist them to get a sense of their body which is essential for brain development. Furthermore, this teaches caregivers how to connect with the baby, physically and emotionally, through nurturing touch and eye contact.
In addition to all of that, games and songs are created collaboratively, such as the signature game of balancing cups on heads while singing ‘Savanah Savanah’, a game created by the Kliptown Mothers. Through these songs, mothers become more aware of themselves and connect with their babies. Another benefit of this is that communication is developed between mothers and their children, as well as the caregivers.
The educational programmes that the organization focuses on are The Feldenkrais Method®, the Chava Shelhav Child’Space Method, Postural Integration®, SomaSensing™, Trauma Specific Approaches, and Asset Based and Community Development (ABCD). The organization plans on reaching out to more mothers in different communities, however, they need as much help and funding as they can.
“My dream is to get the government to come and see the work we do, and how we can work together so that we can have an integrated system. The root problem in our education system is the fact that zero to two years babies are being ignored. I won’t stop voicing this because it is so crucial that this gap be removed and give the much-needed attention to the babies,” Boonzaier comments.
There are five German professors from the University of Colon that are interested in doing research on the work that the organisation is doing. In 2024, one of the professors is scheduled to come to South Africa and start the research. Boonzaier states that once the work is backed up by science, it will give the organisation credibility and hopefully people will see the importance of focusing on babies from the ages of zero to two years old. Although Boonzaier relies on her connection overseas to fund the business, she strongly encourages businesses in South Africa to jump on board for the greater good.
Image of the donations