It all started with Belinah...
November, 2022
In 2008, Belinah was employed at a day care center in the inner city of Pretoria. She knew preschool stimulation is critical but lacked the training and educational resources to do more than babysit. So Belinah knocked on the door of a nearby preschool called Sunnyside, run by ASAP’s partner nonprofit PEN Early Childhood Development Center. She asked if their staff would mentor her.
PEN realized there are countless “Belinahs”, eager to learn, and by 2020, when the ASAP-PEN partnership began, PEN had outreach to 57 daycares in impoverished communities. Over the last decade, Belinah became a skilled preschool teacher and leader on PEN’s staff. She manages the Sunnyside Educational Toy Library and Training Center and has helped establish our next 5 ASAP Preschool Resource Centers in townships around Pretoria.