BG4YE Project
Nurturing confidence and life skills through cooking
Since 2020, Yeukai Maposa has been teaching children aged six to twelve how to cook and bake. What began with 20 children in her kitchen has now grown to 80 students, and she has turned her passion for cooking and teaching into a business called Super Kiddo Kitchen. This is her story.
11 October 2024
Yeukai Maposa, founder of Super Kiddo Kitchen:
It all started with a simple request from my daughter on her eleventh birthday. She did not want the usual party—she wanted what she called ‘a chef’s party’, where she and her friends could cook their own meals. Watching her and her friends have so much fun in the kitchen, I realised something: children love cooking. It was no longer just an activity for fun but it transformed into a competition.
The ‘game’ enabled them to interact and consult among themselves, as they went through the process of reading and understanding the recipe, measuring the ingredients correctly, turning the stove to the right temperature and timing the baking time - for a much-anticipated product.
This is how Super Kiddo Kitchen was born.
It was not easy getting started. I had no known example to follow and copy from because teaching young children the basics of cooking is not common in our communities. Like any new venture, it has been challenging. I had to pioneer everything—from lesson planning to learning how to keep the children engaged. It has been reassuring for me that I must be making some impact when I see them all excited, asking if they can come back for more lessons.
'At Super Kiddo Kitchen, I am working on the whole child – from motor skills to mental and emotional development as we infuse playing and learning. The children are proud of what they create, enjoying the process while learning a valuable life skill. The cooking and baking processes encourage group cohesion as they learning and supporting each other, becoming a community."
The SURE training
I also had to respond appropriately to concerns of the parents. Most parents naturally worry that their children will get hurt. Having undergone the International Labour Organization (ILO) the Sustainable & Resilient enterprise (SURE) training programme in 2021, it completely shifted my mind-set.
Before the training, I did not have proper safety protocols in place—even though I work with fire and heat daily. The SURE programme taught me the importance of emergency measures, such as what to do if a child gets burned or cut. This changed me and the way I had been doing business, I became confident of how to work with the children – at times, almost handholding them on how to handle a knife when cutting and how to pass the knife to the next person - to step-by-step measures of safely using a gas stove.
Cooking is more than just preparing food.
Like everyone else, the children must enjoy what they are doing, or they lose interest quickly. For them, it is also about gaining confidence and the sense of achievement as they muster the intricacies of cooking.
The Expand Your Business Programme
Later, in 2023, I joined the Expand Your Business (EYB) training, which challenged me to think bigger. For three years, although I had been steadily growing, the EYB programme made me realize that I could do more. It made me reflect on where I wanted to be in five years.
The EYB training opened my eyes to the possibility of expanding beyond what I had initially thought was possible. I now have plans to build a bigger school, enrol more children, and I am even considering teaching online.
Super Kiddo Kitchen is constantly evolving, and I am evolving with it. My students are growing more confident, and I am excited about what the future holds. I would like to take my curriculum into primary schools and continue empowering children with the life skills they need.
I am dreaming bigger than ever before. The future of Super Kiddo Kitchen can only be brighter, and I am ready to take it to the next level.
Without the support and guidance of the Ministry of Women Affairs and the ILO, I would not have had the courage to dream this big. They have, in addition, taught me how to be a better leader and mentor, and that has helped my working relations with my staff and the various government departments that I have to work with, which has further strengthened my business interactions.
