The award-winning MiniChess & MindCo programs were developed by Marisa van der Merwe in South Africa and are now being implemented in 9 countries as well as Online over-borders. She won the Shoprite-Checkers Women of the Year award (Category Education) in 2012, is a recognized international speaker, an Ashoka Fellow, and is a Trustee of The Entrust Foundation (a non-profit PBO, championing community empowerment in disadvantaged communities).

The play-based engagement moves over barriers of age, gender, culture, language, and physical abilities – is inter-active, joyful, meaningful, and social, while developing resilience, creativity, thinking/reflection, cooperation, and emotional skills.

The MiniChess Program Impact:

1) Early Childhood Education – defining the future, not only of individuals and communities but for the country’s knowledge capital in the 21st century. Starting early and smart is the only way to harness the most powerful energy in the world: human talent.

2) In-Community collaboration and empowerment, through a system of local project-implementers as Micro-Franchisees, forms the key to mobilise a country of social-entrepreneurs – rooted in sustainable leadership and a compelling force for the common good.

3) Change-makers in education are building the global future, and are hereby invited to invest in pattern-breaking, powerful, education-innovations and the people behind them.

MiniChess & MindCo in South Africa has impacted 100,000+ children and 1500+ trained teachers. We also serve 5 countries in Africa as well as 2 countries in Central Asia, New Zealand and China, with a successful pilot-program in the USA and starting in Germany.

“Health is the priority – but Education is the solution” – Gordon Brown, UN Envoy for Education.

The Covid-crisis has disrupted Education globally & permanently. MiniChess & MindCo forms part of the New-generation Education-strategy: fast-tracking the development of critical skills through inter-disciplinary, integrated learning innovations, for new workplace demand.

Corporate leadership needs to be visionary:

• Education is the ROOT for realizing the POTENTIAL of the FUTURE.
• Saving future-relevant education will save other industries – to include ALL in the recovery.
• See Education-contribution as support for future skills & future sustainability, for a more prosperous future.