Community-led centre fills a gap in Khayelitsha childcare
When children in her extended family were arriving home hungry and in soiled nappies, Nomaphelo Shumana decided to do something about it. In 2017 she started a small childcare service that has since grown into Joy Educare Centre, a registered early childhood development (ECD) facility in Khayelitsha now caring for 33 children.
Shumana began by looking after five children from her own family and charged R100 a month. She has kept fees deliberately low as most families in the area depend on piece jobs and precarious income. The centre currently charges R350 a month for children aged three months to three years, and R200 for aftercare. It opens at 06:00 and closes at 17:00 on weekdays.
“I got tired and decided to do something because our kids were suffering,” said Shumana.
She said that, recognising the fragile finances of many parents, she sometimes allows children to attend when fees are not up to date so that parents can continue job hunting or work without leaving their children unattended.
Registration, standards and hopes for support
Joy Educare Centre is a registered facility. The City of Cape Town has said registration assists centres in meeting safety and quality standards and can also improve access to funding and other support. Shumana has not yet received external funding but hopes that by growing the centre she will become eligible for assistance.
Parents in the community have welcomed the service. One parent, Nolusindiso Mcatshelwa, moved her child to the centre after being unhappy with other providers in the area and said she recommends it to other mothers.
- Registered ECD centre operating since 2017
- Affordable fees to accommodate families reliant on casual work
- Open daily from 06:00 to 17:00, providing both daycare and aftercare
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Children enrolled | 33 |
| Daycare fee (3 months–3 years) | R350 per month |
| Aftercare fee | R200 per month |
| Operating hours | 06:00–17:00 weekdays |
Local context and wider implications
Joy Educare Centre illustrates a broader challenge in Khayelitsha and similar communities: access to safe, affordable early childhood care that allows caregivers to work. Informal employment and irregular income streams are common, and many ECD providers either charge fees that place strain on families or operate without registration that would qualify them for support.
Registration offers several practical advantages. According to the City of Cape Town, registered centres are better positioned to meet safety and quality requirements and can access municipal or provincial support programmes. For small operators like Shumana, securing registration is often only the first step; enrolment numbers and demonstrable governance are typically required before funding or subsidy channels are opened.
Shumana’s approach — keeping fees low, accepting children whose parents cannot always pay, and running long hours — responds directly to local need. But it raises questions about sustainability. Without external funding or a predictable revenue stream, maintaining staff, nutritious meals, learning materials and adequate facilities becomes difficult as demand grows.
Joy Educare sits alongside many community-run initiatives that provide essential services beyond what municipal provisioning can consistently deliver. The centre’s trajectory will be of interest to policymakers and funders considering how to support grassroots ECD providers: whether through grants, training, or linking centres to broader child development and nutrition programmes.
For now, Shumana’s priority remains practical and immediate. She wants to make sure children in her neighbourhood are fed, clean and safe during the day while their parents seek work or attend to other obligations. That simple aim has, in five years, become a lifeline for dozens of families in Khayelitsha.
“I didn’t want to charge too much because I understand that most people depend on piece jobs,” Shumana said, underlining the central tension between affordability for parents and financial viability for providers.
