Education Sudan Project #10020

Kindergartens for Vulnerable Children in Darfur

by Kids for Kids

Project Report | Mar 27, 2018
Five Kindergartens Need Funding!

By Sage Lancaster | Project Leader

Abu Nahala Kindergarten

Mothers in Darfur know that education is the way out of poverty but this year there is an even greater need, before we can think of school - but school is not forgotten! You may have seen in the news that last month the Governor of North Darfur called for urgent aid for many villages because there is famine in Darfur. The harvest has failed for the second year in a row - a disastrous situation - and children and animals are at risk of starving. We are having to save funds for this emergency because we cannot stand by and let children die. There are no other organisations providing aid for remote villages. We have already given 3,000 of the worst-off families (24,000 people, the majority mothers and their children)1 bag of seed and 10 bundles of fodder to help them survive now. You know we are not an emergency organisation, but this is an extreme situation and there is very little response from the international community. This means that even though we have decided which villages our next five Kindergartens will be in, we are not able to tell the communities this news yet because all general funds must focus on the famine and there is not enough remaining to build even one.

But we know how mothers dream of being able to send their children to school. Our plan is to provide five Kindergartens in five of our best villages, hopefully as soon as the rains come and people can start planting again. When you give specifically to our Kindergarten project, we hold those funds just for education. Donations to this project will help us start building. To date, we have built eight Kindergartens and they are wildly successful! They have set such a high preceden - not only for future Kids for Kids Kindergartens, but also those in surrounding regions of Sudan. The State Director of Education visited our Kindergarten at Abu Nahala and was very impressed with the quality of education and the essential equipment and educational toys we have to ensure children are given the best education possible. We are so pleased that our work is bringing the best to children, but we just have to provide this standard of education for more children in our other villages. There is currently no statewise system in place for Kindergartens in Darfur despite people being so desperate for them, so it is up to us. Even a school with two small classrooms has the resources to educate over 100 children.

If you can invest in our Kindergartens now, we will be able to begin building this year! As always, we need to provide the equipment, learning materials, and little chairs and desks for the children- we will not build a Kindergarten if we cannot finance these tools for learning. Education is a priority amongst all our villages but because people are so poor they are not able to finance it themselves. We do have agreement that the central government will pay for wonderful teachers if we can build and equip the schools. We plant trees so the children have shade, and provide two latrines, often the first in the village.

Our Kindergartens educate children, and our goat loans help the poorest in the village to have proper nutrition and a livelihood. These two projects work together in incredible ways, which we have seen specifically in Abu Nahala. Zeinab was one of the poorest in her village and through the goat loan has made her children healthy again. She is now bringing goats milk to the Kindergarten so that the poorest children have some sustenance during the school day. It really is a wonder what a community is capable when they all come together and are given the tools to educate and feed their children.

Please help us to change more lives of current and future generations!

Little Chairs and Tables for the Kindergarten

Soccer Ball for the Kindergarten!

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Dec 29, 2017
More Resources Needed for our Kindergartens

By Sage Lancaster | Project Leader

Trees grow at our Kindergartens

As you know, education is the best long-term way out of poverty, and the earlier children start at school the more chance they have. That is why our Kindergartens are so badly needed in Darfur, where poverty is extreme. With an early education, children will be on the same educational track as those who are more fortunate, not falling behind due to lack of access. Think about when you were in Kindergarten. The early years are when children are at their most receptive. I am sure you still remember the essential skills you learned, plus how important it was to be with children your own age, learning to share, play, and to read and write. Kindergarten is the start to education, without which further schooling is limited and often out of reach.

Our Kindergartens provide so much- not only classes and a teacher, but also much needed goats milk brought in by mothers in the village looking to help the poorest children. The latest report from Abu Nahala highlights "There are Citrus Fruit and Guava trees, Baobab and Neem trees in the Kindergarten growing very well." Trees planted outside the Kindergarten provide food and shade to the children attending the school. Everything we do is interlinked. If we are sending children to Kindergarten, we must ensure they have access to food so they can concentrate and properly benefit from the education that is given. This is why provision of seeds for planting trees in the schoolyard, and our goat loans are so important. Abu Nahala is providing education not only for children in the village, but it has also been possible for "20 kids to come to school from adjacent sub villages on the donkey cart".

In recent reports from Azagarfa and Abu Nahala Kindergartens, the teachers told us that neither of these schools have any children who are malnourished. This is a real testament to the Kids for Kids projects. The UN recently reported that children are malnourished in every village except the 87 Kids for Kids' villages.

However there is always more to do. At Abu Nahala, some of the poorest of the 75 students do not have breakfast in the morning. There are not enough notebooks and other teaching materials. We must do more to ensure our Kindergartens provide everything that is needed to give children the best chance possible for their futures. There could not be more deserving children. Their lives are incredibly hard. They will never have seen a toy before going to our Kids for Kids' school.

Every year we have countless villages asking us to adopt them because they have seen how effective our projects are. There were 37 villages on our short list last year and we are only able to adopt five, approximately 10,500 people. Donations have crashed this year with so many other problems in the world, and in 2018 we are only going to be able to adopt three of those villages. We so desperately want to do as much as we can for children and families who live lives of deprivation. Building more Kindergartens will change the future for countless children because education is the route out of poverty. Please continue to help us help these children. Thank you.

Children in Darfur need access to Schools

Help us provide more essential equipment

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Oct 3, 2017
Five New Kindergartens Opened this September!

By Sage Lancaster | Project Helper

Children at Um Hgalig Kindergarten

This September, five new Kindergartens have welcomed students in for their first ever classes! These schools are in Kindro, Hillat Hamid, Siwailinga, Golo C and Sakori, villages where they have been running our other projects well. Because the villages have chosen to have Kindergartens, and the communities have all been trained to run them for the benefit of the willage as a whole, we know we can rely on them to make sure the school is a success. The building may look so simple to you, but it is the start of learning for these children.

We also just received a wonderful update from our team in Darfur about Um Hgalig Village, which we adopted in 2007. In the picture below, you can see Kindergarten teacher Aziza, 34 years old, with her students. Aziza has 7 children of her own, and also teaches 68 students in the Kindergarten! She has 32 students in First Class, and 36 in Second Class, and along with her volunteer Salwa, give these children a great foundation in learning. It is wonderful that the Ministry of Education has hired Aziza for this school, giving a local woman and her family an income, and the children of Um Hgalig an education.

We are so delighted to hear what a success the Kindergarten in Um Hgalig has been and thrilled to now introduce five new Kindergartens to help educate the students of more Kids for Kids villages. Thank you all so much for helping us to make all of this possible. Children want education so badly, and we are so grateful that you have helped us give it.

Now we must continue to build Kindergartens in more Kids for Kids village- onwards! Every bit of your help means more children are able to go to school and to learn. Your kindness changes children's lives...and yours!

Aziza , Kindergarten Teacher

Links:

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