Victor Mecoamere

Victor Mecoamere

To support this mission Absa and Sowetan run the annual Absa and Sowetan Early Childhood Development Awards.

The awards are also supported by the SA Congress for Early Childhood Development, Department of Education, SABC Education and the Office on the Rights of the Child.

Here are all the winners of the 2008 Absa and Sowetan Early Childhood Development Awards.

Best Home-based Care Centres - North West's Legae La Bana Creche, Mpumalanga's Emfundweni Early Childhood Development Centre and Eastern Cape's Doempie Playgroup;

Best Community-based Care Centres - joint, first-placed winners KwaZulu-Natal's Inkanyiso Creche and Mpumalanga's IK Makuse Early Learning Centre.

And second- and third-placed winners Gauteng's Thabong Creche and Western Cape's Ishraaq Edu-Care Centre.

Best ECD resource and training organisations - North West's Keletsong Community Training and ECD Resources Centre, Western Cape's Early LearningFoundation Montessori Teacher Training Centre and Eastern Cape's Centre for Social Development.

Best ECD Practitioners - Nozipho Mbeka-Sijaji of Eastern Cape, Refilwe Maponya of Limpopo and Paulinah Twala of Gauteng.