Little Footsteps Educare in Wesbank held their own election day on Friday to teach kids the importance of voting and the impact their votes will have.
Principal Candy September says she was motivated by her four year old who accompanied her on 29 May and found herself fascinated by the election process.
“She looked around at everything and asked questions like," What is this? What are they doing there? She even wanted the inker to ink her thumb as well. While they were explaining at the ballot table she listened carefully to the lady and at the box she wanted to see what I was doing.
“She went through the whole process with me and was very excited so I decided I should implement that at my centre to make the children aware of what we as adults do.”
She says she wanted the kids to know that there are different political parties and what they stood for.
The children age 2-5 years old participated and the creche was set up like the real deal with the IEC logos, voting tables, ballot papers and little inked thumbs.
Candy says she involved the parents by asking them to make identity cards for the little ones and dress them in political t-shirts.
“We scanned the ID cards with the temperature monitor, inked their thumbs and gave them ballot papers. After voting they placed the ballot papers in the ballot box. The children were excited and amazed.”
“I want to teach them to be part of the voting process one day to help make South Africa a better place to live and work in because to vote is to have a voice.”