Award-winning solution assists early education

Early education is so vital, yet it’s sadly under resourced in South Africa. There are one million children aged 3-5 years old who don’t have access to early learning programmes, which are crucial for mental stimulation and growth. SmartStart, an early learning social franchise in SA, is on a mission to give every child the power to succeed – a mammoth task that saw them reaching out to Helm (previously Praekelt Consulting) to help them make a difference.

Helm is synonymous with turning complex human realties such as this one, into simple experiences. The team of engineers and experience designers assessed the problem and turned to automation to create a smart, simple solution that helps teachers every single day. The solution saw Helm and SmartStart bag a silver Smarties Award in 2021, which was acknowledged at the ceremony in April 2022.

Says Ebrahim Vally, Chief Product Officer at Helm (which recently rebranded from Praekelt Consulting), “We are humbled to be acknowledged by our peers for the work we did with SmartStart, especially because it is work that will make an impact in early learning development – a bot with a feel good purpose.”