Practitioner profile

Strengthening the Network Closest to the Child

Andiswa Damane never wanted to be a teacher. Now, at Bubble Bee Educare, she teaches so the children can teach her.

5 min read · Pages 8–13 in print

Andiswa Damane, smiling, gestures towards children gathered around her outside the centre; a girl with beaded braids is in the foreground. — Andiswa Damane with children at Bubble Bee Educare, Kayamandi.

At Bubble Bee Educare, Andiswa Damane has little use for job titles. “I’m an all-rounder, wherever I feel I can make a difference, I’m there,” she says. “The only title I don’t have is principal.” On any given day she might be caring for babies, teaching the older children, dancing, singing or settling an argument over a toy.

Andiswa says Bubble Bee was born out of necessity as a night care centre. When her mother, Sindiswa Cungwa, was retrenched from her cleaning job, she needed to find a new way of earning an income. “Honestly, at first it was about putting bread on the table,” Andiswa says. Ma Sindiswa saw a gap in the market for parents working late shifts in Stellenbosch restaurants, many of whom finished at one or two in the morning.

She started with a handful of children in the family sitting room. But the idea caught on quickly. More working parents brought their children, and soon she was able to buy chairs, tables, blankets and toys. Today, Bubble Bee cares for around 23 children. Andiswa is helping carry the family enterprise into its second generation as a trained early learning practitioner, with a growing focus on what children learn, how they develop and the outcomes she can help them achieve.

“Most of the children’s mothers work on farms or in restaurants,” Andiswa explains. “If we close, those children could be outside, doing what and with whom? We would be putting them at greater risk.”

An aerial view of Kayamandi with homes, trees and a playground, with mountains behind. — Bubble Bee Educare is based in Kayamandi. The centre stays open all year except 24, 25 and 26 December.

Andiswa Damane, wearing a beaded headband, leans down smiling towards a group of children. — Andiswa says the children have taught her to listen and respond to the child in front of her. “If a child is bubbly, I need to be bubbly, dance and sing so that we’re on the same level.” If a child arrives upset, she responds differently. “If I start teaching while that child’s heart is not in the right place, they won’t learn anything.” Andiswa Damane with children at Bubble Bee Educare, Kayamandi.

Children sit on colourful plastic chairs at red and blue tables in a yard. — Children at Bubble Bee Educare, Kayamandi. In 2022, Andiswa’s mother was able to create a classroom in the yard after receiving R40,000 from Stellenbosch Municipality’s Grant-in-Aid, a programme that funds local community initiatives.

Andiswa Damane reads with young children in a classroom with a pink wall. — Andiswa Damane reads with children at Bubble Bee Educare, Kayamandi. Andiswa wants parents to see early learning centres not as somewhere children wait until “real school” begins, but as the beginning of education itself. She says every song, drawing and encounter with a book is laying a foundation for what follows.

A young boy in a white shirt looks at the camera. — Wayne at Bubble Bee Educare, Kayamandi. “Children have taught me so much,” Andiswa reflects. “They’ve taught me to be humble, which was the first thing I needed to learn when I got here.”

Bubble Bee’s journey 2017 Andiswa’s mother starts caring for children, initially offering overnight care to parents working late shifts. 2018 Bubble Bee Educare is officially established. 2024 Andiswa joins the centre full-time and completes ELRU training. 2025 Bronze registration approved. 2026 Silver registration application submitted. Social worker and EHP visits completed; Andiswa is now making the recommended improvements to the building, including repairs to the ceiling, a new window and storeroom upgrades.

A young girl in a pink top plays on the floor of a dim classroom. — Mpho plays at Bubble Bee Educare, Kayamandi. “Children are people,” Andiswa says. She wants them to be allowed to be creative, explore, get dirty, paint, sing and discover the world without adults limiting them.

When Andiswa started working at the centre full-time, she was apprehensive. Even though she had a matric and other qualifications, she had never trained to teach young children. Her mother introduced her to ELRU, a regional implementing partner for early learning social enterprise SmartStart in the Western and Southern Cape. The five-day training course helped her understand how to structure the day, respond to children and navigate the practical demands of running a centre.

“SmartStart came into that whirlwind of not knowing and gave me a purpose,” she says. “That’s when I began to love working with children of every age. I can’t stay with one class. I want all the classes, all the love and hugs.”

Andiswa has big plans for Bubble Bee. The centre has applied for Silver registration with the Department of Basic Education, the level required before an early learning programme can apply for the government subsidy. She has also submitted the centre’s building plans to upgrade the facility to the municipality.

“I’m praying, working and researching day and night to identify anything that might stop the crèche from getting Silver registration. I’m going to get it.”

Some former Bubble Bee children already return from primary school to show her their reports. Seeing how well they are doing makes her proud. But when Andiswa thinks about whether everything she is working so hard to build will matter, she looks much further ahead.

She pictures a child who started at Bubble Bee walking back through the gate years from now wearing a graduation gown. They have a degree, a diploma, perhaps a doctorate.

“It could be 15 children,” she says, “but even one child coming back to say, ‘Mama, I made it,’ would be marvellous.”