Business Profile: Linda Hill
- What is the name of your business and what is your role? Singakwenza Early Childhood Education NPC – Project Coordinator and Fundraiser.
- Describe your business in two sentences. Singakwenza, meaning “We can do it!” is a non-profit organization which focuses on Early Childhood Education. With an emphasis on long-term sustainability, we provide grassroots training for practitioners, parents and caregivers to enable them to provide daily fun, educational activities for their young children. These activities develop, through play, the foundation skills for learning, supported by educational resources that are handmade solely from recycling.
- How long have you been in business? 13 years
- How did you get into this business? I was fortunate enough to be selected as a Vodacom Change the World volunteer for Singakwenza.
- What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced, and how did you overcome it? Covid-19. All the creches where we run our training and mentorship program closed for 9 months. We needed to reach the young children and came up with Learn @ Home activity boxes which contain several carefully selected toys, ready-made from household packaging, to develop a wide range of vital preschool skills. We provided a set of instructions for parents to explain how to set up the over 100 different learning activities and how these will help with holistic development.
- What single trait/skill could you not have succeeded without? My networking and relationship-building skills.
- What is the best business advice you’ve received? Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.
- Your secret to business success is? Consistently show up every day and do my best.
- What is your business goal for 2024? To continue to build relationships with our donors and ensure that we have sufficient funding for our programs.
- Tell us one thing that not many people know about you? I love hiking and being surrounded by nature.