Julie Hay

There is magic happening at the Rainbow headquarters at Rotunda.

Ordinary, everyday things which are usually discarded are being transformed into tools for learning and playing.

Lindiwe is carefully flattening bread bags, Linda is making plans for a workshop and dreaming up fundraising ideas, Joseph is updating the crèche registers before driving staff to a workshop in the rainbow van, Sthembile, Slindile, Thoko and Thandeka are preparing the lessons they are going to teach, while Nonto cleans, sorts and stores the recycling that they will use in their lessons and workshops.  Julie Hay is serene in the midst of it all.  This is the home of the Singakwenza project where it is clear that Julie’s creativity drives the project.  Putting waste to work is how she describes the process.

“You shouldn’t have to be wealthy to be educated” Julie says with determination. South African statistics show that only half of the children who start school get to matric and that less than 75% of those can get 30% or above in the final exams. Unless children learn the fundamentals at the right age, they start school from a disadvantaged position. “The only way to change this is to change the foundation of education and find creative ways of getting real learning into less privileged communities.”  Julie has found a way.   With 10 000 creches in KZN, there are plenty of kids who spend the day with caregivers. Singakwenza currently work with almost 2000 children in 16 crèches.  “We work with the system already there, no point setting up new pre-schools.”  By investing in people, rather than stuff, Singakwenza is able to completely transform the ability of children to achieve at school.

Singakwenza means ‘We can do it’ and the basic philosophy is that we need to do what we can, with what we have, where we are.  Focussed on Early Childhood Development (ECD) the project supports communities to help themselves and equip children with the skills they need in order to succeed and make good choices about their future.

Julie always knew she’d be a teacher as children were a magnet. As a pre-school teacher she has seen a lot of schools and crèches.  “I simply couldn’t bear the wastage which I observed,” she says, “lots of good educational tools which were either neatly packed away, being used for the wrong purpose or simply languishing in the sandpit.”  Despite the presence of reasonable equipment, education was not happening.  “Everyone wants to fix up the built environment, but that does not necessarily make a difference.  I want the teachers to connect to the kids and just start playing.”

Julie has seen many examples of schools spending tons of money to buy all the right equipment, then tons of money to protect it, and realised there had to be a better way.  “I noticed that people were quite helpless when something broke, so the learning would just stop”  Now with the Singakwenza way – if something breaks, you just go out, find some more free material and make a new one!  Magic!

For 10 years before Singakwenza, Julie ran a successful Toptots franchise.  “I wanted to do something from home which gave me time and energy to spend with my own children.”  Previously, she had been a full time teacher but found that after giving to others all day, there was little energy left for her own family at the end of each day.  Toptots fitted her ideals perfectly. “It was all about building relationships and making moms more confident and aware of age appropriate activities and development.”   Seasons change and after an awesome 10 years she knew she had to reach out to the less privileged.  She took a big leap, sold her business and trusted that the right opportunity would come along.

Julie’s transformative voluntary work earned her a Vodacom Change the World Award which paid her salary for a year in an ECD centre in 1000 Hills. As fortune would have it, N3TC read a story about her in the Meander Chronicle,  and after meeting her leapt at the chance to help her make magic. “The thing I love most about N3TC is that they don’t just want to tick boxes. They are the most incredible and caring partners, determined to make a real difference.”

Julie dreams big – and intends (one day) breaking the Guinness World record for the most plastic bottle tops collected in a year.  How many bottle tops?  About 70 million!  The record is 157 000 kgs, held by Columbia.  Bottle tops are one of their most useful and used items and what they don’t need will be recycled and turned into jungle gyms for their crèches.  Who would have thought fundraising could be this much fun?  Partner and fundraiser, Linda Hill says “It is an honour and great privilege to work alongside Julie to establish and maintain an organisation that is truly uplifting children. Her integrity, knowledge and passion are incredible.”

During a difficult period in Julie’s life, she chanced upon a book which resonated with exactly where she was. She believes firmly that books find you and that stories are one of the best ways to teach kids and has read extensively to her own children who have absorbed her compassion and deep understanding of people.  When Matt first learnt at age 8, that there was no Father Christmas, he was horrified that there might be kids who wouldn’t get presents.  He decided that the best way to remedy this would be to build a toy factory disguised as a mielie meal factory to make gifts for all the poor kids.  Kirsty is a mini-Julie, who cooks with passion, understands the value of nurturing relationships and is a voracious reader herself – determined to follow in Mum’s footsteps.

Julie’s favourite toy – made from plaited plastic bread bags – is the skipping rope.  “It brings people together – you can’t skip alone.”  This epitomises what Julie is about – enabling, empowering, nurturing, sharing – changing the world, one child at a time.  And when she starts telling a story everyone listens.

“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world” -Nelson Mandela