Help create a safe and nurturing place for preschoolers to learn and thrive
Quality care and education is vital so children have a solid foundation. Families face chronic hunger, inadequate housing, lack of income and low living standards. The effects of poverty can be devastating to child development, including illnesses, chronic malnutrition, slow cognitive development and academic failures.
Your support can help rewrite children’s stories. Preschoolers now and in the years to come, will receive high quality early years education at Umvini Preschool, with a good spiritual foundation, from trained teachers and assistants near to their homes. Children will enjoy two good quality nutritious meals a day. Those who have already moved on to primary school have settled and coped well thanks to their preschool education.
👏We have raised the £5,000 we need to complete the building of the preschool. Thank you so much for your support.
Umvini already runs a small crèche for 16 children in a makeshift building. Many local families want to bring their children to the preschool, but it is not big enough to meet demand.
E3 and Umvini are raising funds to complete a new, larger preschool building, which will cater for 75 orphaned and vulnerable children. The new preschool will cater for a wider age range too, helping more toddlers receive a strong start in life.
Priority is given to orphaned and vulnerable children in greatest need – those of teenage mums who are still at school and others being raised by their elderly grandmothers, some of whom have 8 children to care for.
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What happens if the preschool is not built?
75 children now and hundreds in the future will not have the opportunity to go to a safe, comfortable and well-equipped preschool to start their learning journey before primary school.
Those children will be at risk of hunger because they won't have the two nutritious meals a day and those who care for them struggle to put enough food on the table.
Children are at risk of harm or abuse because they often play outside all day on their own. They would miss out on the stimulation of being in a learning environment and this will make them less likely to succeed at school.
Children will not have the chance to start learning to count and enjoy books and to play in a structured way, so they will not be prepared for school.
Grandparents will have no time to rest from the exhaustion of bringing up their orphaned grandchildren.
Teenage parents will struggle to return and complete school because they will have nowhere for their children to go while they are at school.
Your donation will help change this situation and improve life for many families in Umvini.
Project budget
A grant from a trust and fundraising by the local community have funded the work so far, which cost £7,800. This covered the development of the plans, building the foundations and lower walls and the cost of a structural engineer.
Budget to complete the building work and furnish the preschool: £7,525.
Funds raised locally for this final phase: £1,250 (such an amazing amount in an impoverished community!)
Contribution from E3 funds: £1,275
👏Amount raised so far: £5,000 - we have reached our target!
Ensuring the preschool is sustainable
The preschool has been endorsed by the local feeder primary school. Parents and guardians will contribute R100 (£7) a month to help cover the ongoing costs of running the preschool and paying a stipend to staff. This cost is covered by the social grant they receive. While the child is at preschool, teenage parents will be able to attend school, grannies will be able to rest and do their chores and parents will be able to work if possible (generally low paid, unskilled, ad hoc jobs).