When Felicity Toll was just six years old, she was left orphaned when her mother passed away and left her with the responsibility of taking care of her three-week-old brother.
The tragedy of losing her mother at such a young age and the heavy weighted responsibility of taking care of her brother prompted her to start her own early childhood development centre in Humansdorp, which she hopes to expand to further cater for many more children in the area.
Toll said taking care of her younger brother sparked her passion for children, but it was only in 2002 that she decided to start her own informal ECD centre from her home in Humansdorp with one child enrolled at the centre.
Despite having only one child at the centre she felt inspired to educate herself as an ECD teacher.
“My mission is to prepare young children for school and promote awareness of young children, including children with special needs,” said Toll.
To work towards making her dream become a reality, she began studying and in 2010 she graduated with an NQF level 4.
Toll then proceeded to register her ECD centre, Dienkie Dot, in 2015, which allowed her to open her doors to more children.
Finally, in 2019, she accomplished another one of her goals when she received her NQF level 5.
Since then, Toll has continued to work hard towards building a successful ECD centre and today her centre has three teachers and one cook, who all work towards providing a strong educational foundation for the 62 children.
The children from the community start at the centre when they are one year old and generally continue until they have completed Grade R.
“It has always been my intention to run a big centre and based on my commitment and perseverance the centre has grown tremendously in numbers,” said Toll.
Apart from the work she does at her ECD centre, she is also a community ECD facilitator on the Kouga ECD Project, which is managed by the Kouga Wind Farm Community Development Trust.
Toll is a leader in her community and provides mentoring and support to other principals in the region.
She also temporarily steps in as acting principal at facilities in the area where principals have sadly passed on.
“I have been able to make a massive difference in the lives of many young children in Humansdorp for the last 20 years,” said Toll.
She said that she is now looking forward to the next stage which is to move to bigger premises to cater for more children, which is something she has dreamed about for many years.
“The bigger premises will provide me with the space I need to categorise different sections and it will allow me to accommodate more learners and offer job opportunities to more teachers,” said Toll.
“I also hope to establish a sick bay for the learners and a vegetable garden which would allow the EDC centre to become self-sustaining.”
