ECD recognised as a hope for the future......
The recognition that ECD is important and that we need to
provide children with good quality preschools to give them a
hope for the future has been realised in an article written in The Herald last
month. We hope to be able to be a part
of the advocacy for, and move towards, better standards of education for our
children.
And we are ready to GO!!!!!
After a few whirlwind weeks of meetings and site visits,
The Foundations Project, along with its new partner, The Child Resource
Institute of Zimbabwe (CRIZ), joined the local government officials of the
district of Mabvuku in a celebration lunch last Tuesday. The cause for celebration: we have finally been presented with a piece
of land on which to build our project’s first preschool and community
centre! There is MUCH excitement in the
Foundations Project camp as we begin to draw up plans and gather together
building materials for this venture.
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| The Foundations Project, CRIZ and local government celebrating the handover of our land in Mabvuku with local cuisine. Kerry and Charlotte tried the grey sadza but chose to stay away from the 'offal'!!! |
Mabvuku is a peri-urban community about 20 minutes
outside of Harare. It is home to many of
the poorest of the poor living in this country, a place that is made up of
plots that have been bought but are empty due to the lack of funds to build any
kind of structure or home on them.
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| An empty plot is left abandoned - children who should be in school hang around to escape the beating mid day sun |
The
children hanging around the dirt roads are hungry and, in the winter weather
that is upon us, cold. However, they
still manage a smile as they inquisitively sit watching us and wondering what
we are doing as we ponder over the site and its possibilities.
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| An excited young boy does cartwheels in front of the open space that will soon be a place he can come to learn and play |
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| The smiling faces we encounter each time we go to the site remind us of why we are doing what we do! |
We have the site plans in hand for our plot and are very
blessed to have our friend, Kerry Van Leenhoff on hand as our resident
architect to help draw up the plans for the buildings. Our aim is to include the preschool as well
as a facility in which training can take place, income generating projects can
be carried out, caregivers and community members can participate in workshops
and health care may be administered.
There will also be space for agricultural projects include a mushroom
project and a poultry project. As these
plans are drawn up, we will begin to gather together the building materials
needed to carry out this feat!
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| Martha and Godfrey, the head of the Mabvuku Development Committee, determine the size of the plot |
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| The team pours over the plans and is excited about the prospects for the site |
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| Our plot - the green quadrilateral shape in the middle |
Yesterday, we had a fantastic meeting with the director
of ICRI (The International Child Resource Institute), the parent body of our
partner, CRIZ. He has travelled from the
States to give training on ECD and to look at the ICRI projects around the
world. He was very excited by our piece
of land and subsequent to a visit to the site, we came up with many exciting
ideas for how we can make the school and the centre as a whole and innovative building
in which community members’ creativity can flow and they can be given a chance
to dream big and to work towards the reality of those dreams.
We are looking for any form of building
materials/resources for the centre that anyone may have lying around. With our fantastic design team on board, ANYTHING
can be used and integrated into the buildings so if you have stuff cluttering
up your lives or if you know of anyone who might be interested in coming on
board to help with materials, please do not hesitate to contact me.
See you next time when we will have photos of foundations
laid and all SORTS of activities taking place in the community of Mabvuku!
Help us to make a difference
Help us to make a difference
It’s impossible not to make a difference. Every choice we make
leads either toward health or toward disease; there’s no other direction. The
question is not “How can I, one person, make a difference? The question is
“What kind of difference do I want to make?”
~ Julia Butterfly Hill who spent over two years living in a tree, to save it from being cut down
~ Julia Butterfly Hill who spent over two years living in a tree, to save it from being cut down
We’re not asking you to live in a tree or a township or
anything NEARLY as OTT! We are
just asking you to help us to make a difference, in whatever way YOU want to do it.
To give you an example, a friend of the Foundations Project has found a great way
to raise money for us. They have put
together a clothes auction in which a group of friends come together for an
evening of fun, a few glasses of wine and an auction of all their clothes that
they do not wear anymore. Instead of
shopping at Mbare Market, they shop in their friends’ cupboards in support of
the children of Mabvuku!!!
There are many fun ways that you can get involved in making a difference! It'd be great to hear how you would like to get involved:)
There are many fun ways that you can get involved in making a difference! It'd be great to hear how you would like to get involved:)
