Ntataise means “to lead a young child by the hand” in SeSotho. We are an independent, not-for-profit organisation founded in South Africa in 1980 with the objective of helping women in disadvantaged rural communities gain the knowledge and skills needed to establish and sustain effective Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes for children in their care. Ntataise’s vision is to ensure that the growing numbers of vulnerable children living in marginalized communities of South Africa gain access to quality early childhood development opportunities which support their physical, emotional and cognitive growth. To achieve this, Ntataise focuses on supporting the development of leaders within the sector both at grassroots level in community based pre-schools and ECD programmes as well as in the training organisations that support these women working directly with young children. Today Ntataise’s work is divided between its training and development programmes which work directly with pre-schools and communities and its capacity building and support programme for the Network of 21 resource and training ECD organisations across 7 provinces of South Africa.