Train 30 women preschool teachers in Mozambique!

Greetings from Mozambique!

Leaving no child behind - even those who aren't yet in school

This year, high levels of food insecurity prompted even more young kids to tag along with their siblings to get a meal at school. These kids, just 3 or 4 years old, wait around in the school yard for hours until lunch time. MSLI's policy is to never turn any child away, even if they're not in school. But we also see the opportunity to do more for these young kids, which is why we'll be launching a major expansion of our preschool program in 2025.

The importance of preschool

The evidence shows that investing in children’s early years is one of the smartest investments a donor can make to break the cycle of poverty, address inequality, and boost children’s overall productivity later in life. Rigorous studies have found that preschool education can significantly improve children's performance on childhood development tests, communication skills, cognitive abilities, and likelihood to enroll in primary school.

Yet, despite their proven benefits, in Mozambique less than 4% of young children (aged three to five) have access to some sort of preschool. In rural areas, the percentage is less than 1% – even though this is where the need is the highest! We're on a mission to change that!

Preparations underway

Over the last couple of months, we have been busy laying the foundation to expand our preschool program to 10 new villages in 2025. This has consisted of community meetings, developing the basic infrastructure, recruiting preschool teachers, and organizing the teacher training that will kick-off in January. We have a new Preschool Program Manager, Rita, leading this work, and she brings over a decade of expertise with early childhood education.

Thank you for your support in making this happen!