Contract + Agreement = Understanding

Red Tape. It bugs sometimes. But when all is said and done, we are grateful we have this formality. Sometimes a little piece of paper is what can clear up a huge misunderstanding, and also personifies a neutral party: “It’s not me who said that, it was the paper” (eyes looking down at the paper in an ‘I told you so’ manner). I think, many times without a contract, agreement, or written application, we end up confused and slightly bitter with one another when either party doesn’t hold up the stated terms of the relationship.

Indlela has actually run into a few problems with the crèches in Amaoti recently due to misunderstandings of the relationship. Indlela took over the creche development programme from a partnering NPO, and some of the creche owners were unaware of our differentiation. The former NPO provided the crèches with consumables (toilet tissue, detergent, etc). Although Indlela does provide those items when we have them, donating items to the crèches is not our initial goal. A few of the crèches came to us wondering why their window wasn’t fixed, or why they weren’t receiving detergent to clean out the buckets of soup we give them. One creche was upset with us because we hadn’t built them a new creche. We recognized a strong need to explain in formal terms what we would provide for these crèches and what we expected in return…and for there to be a formal written agreement followed by a “John Hancock”.

The Creche Development team created a simple easy to read creche partnership contract that would explain what Indlela intends to provide to the crèches, and what we expect in return from the creches. Indlela operates under the “Give a man a fish, you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you will feed him for a lifetime.” This contract stated that Indlela’s goal was to provide teachers with continual training and education, through workshops and seminars, and would provide educational material alongside the training---not provide endless amounts of material items, like toilet tissue, etc. It also stated that we are going to try and get each creche registered with the Dept. of Social Development. We will mentor and serve as advocates for each creche in the registration process. If a creche is registered we will provide the owners with a tailor-made business-training programme. And that Indlela’s fieldworkers (Mbali and whomever else is hired) will provide them with a mentor relationship where they visit the crèches 2x per month giving an assessment of the creche, as well as answering any questions or concerns of the teachers. We also agreed to continue providing daily meals for the children via Indlela’s feeding programme.

In return, we expect: A clean, safe environment for the children to learn. Children to never be left alone. Attendance at all new Indlela teaching workshops. Evidence that training is being activated in the classroom, and new teaching strategies and materials are consistently used with the children. Materials to be taken care of and looked after. And a daily programme is displayed in the classroom in an interactive way for the children.

After getting approval from the chairman over the contract, Mbali and I were ready to head out to verbally explain the contracts to the teachers and owners at each creche Indlela works with. Thank God I drive a manual truck here, because I was given a manual truck to drive around the townships. The roads aren’t paved, and they are laden with goats, chickens, stray dogs, trash, and sometimes kids popping out from behind a big piece of boarding. You just have to honk…at everything. The goats and chickens hop away quickly. This little two year old was straying away from her brothers and was inching closer and closer to our slowly moving car, and Mbali tells me I must honk at her! Poor little thing got such a fright, and ran straight back to her other brothers.

Mbali and I have covered about 10 creches a day. I would explain the contract, and if they didn’t understand Mbali would translate in Zulu. The teachers were so excited especially about the creche registration process. I explained to them that it is not a guarantee that their creche will be registered, and that the Dept. of Social Development will ultimately decide…not Indlela. The teachers and owners consistently asked about more training opportunities and are so excited to learn. The teachers want in-house training. For example, monitoring the class for a day and then provide feedback on their teaching style, etc. I am the only one on the team that has Early Childhood Education experience, but they only speak Zulu in the crèches, so I can’t understand what the teachers are saying when they are teaching the children, thus cannot provide them with in-depth feedback that they deserve. We are looking to hire field workers, so please pray we get a lady who can speak wonderful Zulu and has early childhood education experience.

Mbali and I will head back out to do four remaining crèches tomorrow. Only one creche did not want to sign the contract, and this is what we suspected as the owner is “cheeky” as Mbali explained to me. One of the teachers was hitting these two boys who were acting silly with a long palm tree stick…I am hoping this creche gets shut down by the government. All the teacher did while we were there was yell at the kids. The boys, who were just hit, followed us to the car without anyone noticing. I secretly wanted to let them hop in and just let them ride around with us for the rest of the day. Anyway, because they didn’t sign the contract they will no longer be apart of our programme, which means they won’t receive any help from us, including food. That is sad, but hopefully, the parents will realize that they have to start buying food for their children, an added expense they can’t afford, and will send them to a near-by school that does receive feeding. The standard must be raised, and unfortunately if the teacher doesn’t agree or doesn’t want to sign, we can’t help any longer.

I am so happy almost all of the teachers were in agreement to sign the contract. And continuously thanked us for all the work that Indlela does. I love these ladies so much. They really are the true “Mama Africa’s”. I am privileged be in an agreement with them!

The picture above is the magnetic logo we stick on the car when we head out to Amaoti. Hopefully if they know we are there to help we won't get mugged. (Just kidding...kinda.)