Dear friends, donors and development enthusiast.
We are excited to relaunch our support towards access towards the education project
First, quick update
- The village we originally supported under Edubwiza got a school built by the government in their village
- The distance which children used to walk to school was removed, so far 65 pupils are in primary school education but also don't attend regularly (we know why, read on), and 3 are in secondary school.
The drop-out rates have not reduced, as of February, this year we have on record 27 pupils who are supposed to be in school but aren't going to school. This may sound incomprehensible when you know that the school is just within meters of their homes.
And to unfortunate turn of events, girls (5) who dropped out of school become pregnant in less than a year of dropping out of school. Now families of these teen mothers; which are usually large, are troubled with the increased numbers of mouths to feed and challenged to live daily. Space and meeting basic human needs are hard to come by.
We learnt that drop out rates are largely associated with the inherent poverty rates in this community. Distance to school and lack of school materials aren't the major reasons but food insecurity is.
Children in Cyaruzinge have difficulties to concentrate in class on empty stomach and therefore staying home is a better bet. While the government has done the unimaginable to bring these people to the level they are on today, the community still needs more external support as they continue figuring out how to tackle the poverty they live in. The community is landless and don't have a viable source of income. We want to continue helping them by educating their children as we are exploring other possibilities on how this community can sustain themselves. But after six years in this, we know books and pens won't be enough to accomplish that:The reason for the renewed approach.
And to unfortunate turn of events, girls (5) who dropped out of school become pregnant in less than a year of dropping out of school. Now families of these teen mothers; which are usually large, are troubled with the increased numbers of mouths to feed and challenged to live daily. Space and meeting basic human needs are hard to come by.
During the summer of 2018, we went to the village and it was in-depth discussed and agreed that Mama na Mtoto would retake the responsibility of helping primary school children to attend school, only after we identified who is doing what within that community as at times it felt chaotic and uncoordinated help provided by various organisations and walk-in sponsors. We want to change that and put-in some leadership on collaborating with other actors in this community. Thus far, we have identified other partners who are supporting preschool children. They have started a lean private preschool in village and have hired two teachers who are initiating kids of the village into schooling.
For our part, we will take the responsibility to continue funding the school materials and paying school fees the primary school children need, but this time, this project will be coupled with another initiative and we will request more support.
We learnt that drop out rates are largely associated with the inherent poverty rates in this community. Distance to school and lack of school materials aren't the major reasons but food insecurity is.
We are in advanced stages of discussing with the community leadership on ways of staring a school lunch program which can eliminate a temporary hunger that pupils face when in classes and so they can be able to concentrate during their lessons. Further details about this project will come in August,2019.
It is going to be a project which will need a big initial financial outlay because we envisage to build a functioning kitchen, equip it, train community members how to run it through apprenticeship, and assure that the kitchen gets (buys) food to feed the kids of the village. And we envisage that this kind of project should run at least for three years if we are to see its impacts on students school attendance and their performance.
This summer we are also starting another two projects which will supplement that schooling project (projects on sexual and reproductive health teaching including family planning and supporting village entrepreneurs as source of in-village created employment)--which will be started . For more details on see the project tab here.
If you are wondering how you can help. We are seeking for donations. We have created an easy way to donate to our projects. See the support us link, top right of your screen. And any ideas, or questions are welcome. Contact us.
