Our project

Our “Escolinha Nhassanana” is a non-profit kindergarten with pre-educational aspects, which momentarily is visited by 60 children aged two to six.

“Escolinha Nhassanana” means “little school of the children” in the local language Githonga.

We work according to the newest pedagogical acquirements, to give the children a varying daily experience and prepare them for school as good as possible. Our kindergarten contains two classrooms, a self-constructed playground, a dormitory, a refectory, a WC and a kitchen.

We are found close to the Mozambican City of Inhambane. The kindergarten grounds are located in the community of Josina Machel, an area we choose for several reasons as our place of action:

  1. Most of the children of this region speak the local language “Githonga” and no Portuguese which is spoken and required in school.
  2. The region has a high illiteracy rate.
  3. The children have no preparation for school (e.g. training of concentration, learning of letters and numbers or writing exercises)
  4. The children lack an age-appropriate place to play.
  5. Many families have a very low income ( less than the average yearly income per capita of ca. 470 USD
  6. The main areas to earn a living are tourism, selling of fruits and vegetables, fishing, agriculture and handcraft.
  7. There are no childcare provisions  or pre-school education financed by the Mozambican government

We want to establish in the City of Inhambane and especially in the community of Josina Machel a high-quality childcare and pre-school education and therefore have defined the following goals:

  1. We want to raise awareness to the importance of pre-school education.
  2. We want improve the educational possibilities of the region.
  3. We want no offer sustainable pre-school education and childcare in our kindergarten
  4. We want to improve the Portuguese language skills of the region
  5. We want to prepare the children well for school
  6. We want to help the parents to improve their income taking care of their children during the day.

Actual situation

The kindergarten is currently still having difficulties to work independently and finance itself through the monthly parent contributions, on account of the financial situation of most of the children´ families. Due to the big financial gab that divides the Mozambican society, the kindergarten established a socio-economic system for the monthly parental contributions. The contributions vary from 40 Meticais to 1200 Meticais (1-30 Euros).

The “Escolinha Nhassanana” tries to become self-financing, but it’s a long way to go. The following measures are planned:

  1. Building a bakery to bake bread for personal use and sale.
  2. Buying of a transport used to bring the children from the city to the kindergarten, which is currently lent at a high price.

To complete these measures and extend our kindergarten we still depend on support and help.