Visits were made to various pre-schools in other high density areas around Harare, as well as in the areas surrounding the Faith and Hope Centre. The pre-school model is all fairly similar, and although most of them are very well run, the cost of the schools varies from US$18 to US$90 a month - a bit ridiculous to even consider for a household of whose monthly income is more or less US$50 and in whom at least 2 or 3 pre-school aged children live.
The excitement of having their photo taken by a murungu!
Nap time in the green zone - vital for any child's early development. The children are well versed in the day's activities and the government curriculum provides for a holistic programme....
These schools, however, were an encouragement to the idea of our project as the children were HIGHLY entertaining and provided us with much amusement as they sang to us and showed us their artwork on the walls. To have all these little faces shining up at us, asking us ‘How do you do?’ and telling us ‘It is very nice to meet you’ in perfect English was almost too much for us to handle. We left each school feeling extremely excited at the prospect that our children could be taught their alphabet and numbers and how to draw and colour in between the lines, as well as relating to others their own age. We also left feeling slightly despondent that those children at the schools we visited included only those that could afford to pay the fees and who would thus benefit from the advantage of attending a pre-school.
How wonderful it will be when our kiddies can sit in a line and sing to their visitors!
However, we decided to proceed and see how far we could get. With the five pre-school aged children that we have at Faith and Hope, we already have a small and very bright class but we wanted to see what the need was outside our gates. So we took the chance of a bright winter afternoon in Harare to visit one of the surrounding communities. I already stuck out like a sore thumb and without Mary* by my side, the project would have ended there and then! We were swamped by ladies who had been drawing water from the well. As they each picked up a chubby, grubby toddler by the one arm, wiped its snotty nose with the bottom of their t-shirt, they walked towards us with their unsupported bossoms swinging freely under their shirts. And there and then we realised that there IS in fact a great need for some sort of childcare for these children. As well as the chance for them to be stimulated, fed and loved while their parents attempt to earn the measly income that they do.
Once the group had got used to our presence, we began to ask a few questions to ascertain the number of children in the community - how many go to school, why they don’t, what the average income of the community was, etc. The results of our questioning pointed towards a perfect market for our pre-school as well as a large group of people offering to be the headmistress, the grounds-man and any other employment we might like to offer them! We suddenly realised that there was room for a pre-school in this community alone as well as at Faith and Hope and probably in every suburb we might enter in these areas around the city – and so we have started to make this realisation into a reality!
