Hi Everyone
The question “What does the Local Guides Program means to you?” has become far more than I thought possible. Here’s why:
My wife and I have an organization called Living Kids Sports Academy NPC where we work in less privileged communities in South Africa. We use an ECD Program which help toddlers develop on different levels and become school ready by using 9 different sports as a platform. While implementing the sports program at various preschools and day care centres in very poor and densely populated areas, we found it very hard to find the actual location of the preschools. Sometimes we have to travel through a maize of small, cluttered and dusty streets with no street names indicated or incorrect street names, and to find the actual location in the heart of these areas can sometimes be a huge challenge and very time consuming.
To solve this problem, I started placing the actual location, the street view and the name board of each pre-school and day care centre that we operate in, on Google Maps. To my astonishment the views of these places reached over 50 000 within a couple of weeks. Suddenly the Local Guides Program enabled parents to quickly locate a safe place with proper preschool education close to them, which previously was just not possible, because these schools simply do not have funding for websites, etc. to create awareness on the internet. Some of these areas are so densely populated that parent can simply not be aware of a day care centre or preschool located only 200m from their homes. Because of severe poverty in these areas parents and grandparents must walk with the children wherever they need to go and thanks to the Local Guides Program, these parents can now find schools close to them, since one thing everybody in South Africa DO have, is a smartphone.
The Local Guides Program to me means the world, because it now resembles the heart of our organization: bringing HOPE to parents and PROPER preschool education in a playful way to children, which ensures a brighter future for our children and our country!
Thank you Google for having a HUGE impact in bringing children and education together in South Africa!!
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