Apart from the home environment, care and education programmes are critical towards children's development and success 1. However, numerous children up to the age of five years old living in developing countries, including South African rural areas, face exposure to multiple risks affecting their early childhood development. These risks include poverty, malnutrition, poor health conditions, and deficient stimulation in their home environment 2,3. These disadvantaged children often do poorly at school causing them to enter low-income jobs which eventually limit their opportunities to live long, healthy, creative and dignified lives 4. Ultimately, this may cause a snowball effect transferring poverty from one generation to the next 2. Although the Education White Paper 5 5 , South African Schools Act 6 and the National Integrated Early Childhood Development (ECD) Policy 7 acknowledge the importance of quality early childhood development, children in the South African rural areas have limited access and opportunities to reach such goals 5,7. In fact, according to the Human Sciences Research Council 8 , in the National ECD Programme, there is currently no centre-based ECD programme provided by the state as that for health and education. However, since the National ECD Policy was approved by Cabinet in December 2015, ECD has been made a top priority and significant efforts are being made to implement a comprehensive package of essential ECD services to all South African children 3,7. In the meantime, these programmes are provided by the private and non-profit sector in South Africa 8 and such collaboration is crucial while the necessary systems are being put into place 3,7. Early Childhood Development and the Crosstrainer Programme in Rural Mahikeng Danette de Villiers, B OT (UFS).
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