Hamba Bamba Funda

Hamba Bamba Funda (translated to Move Touch Learn) is a non-profit organization that deals with early childhood development in Kliptown, Soweto where we work with mothers and babies aged 0-2. Hamba Bamba Funda supports and enables the active involvement of parents and caregivers in building strong foundations for the psychological, cognitive and social development of their children between birth and pre-school age. With the mission to help break the trauma cycle of poverty that often deprives children and communities in under developed areas. Hamba Bamba Funda coaches and equips caregivers on effective ways to stimulate and interact with their young children through an educational program informed by: Asset Based and Community Development principles (ABCD); Trauma specific approaches (Gabor Mate and Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory); and Somatic Movement practices such as the methods of Feldenkrais®; Chava Shelhav Child’ Space; Postural Integration; and Soma Sensing. These parents and childcare workers are empowered to help young children develop to their full potential. Significantly, Hamba Bamba Funda’s work also does something very important and that is to build family bonds between mothers and their children, through Early Childhood Development. Some of the most fundamental teaching that we all receive in life is from our parent figures, especially our mothers. We watch and observe them and it is from them that we make sense of the world around us. This is where Hamba Bamba Funda’s passion lies, in the education of young minds with the support of their mothers and caregivers. Therefore, we also understand and prioritize the importance of educating and training for the caregivers and nursery schoolteachers of day care centres. By instilling skills in our caregivers, we don’t only secure the early development of the babies we have today, but we ensure the development of the babies will create a solid foundation for their future.