The Case of a preschool in Mt Darwin 

A View from the Farmhouse

   My late maternal grandparents built a bush farm, in what seemed like the middle of nowhere; miles outside of the small rural town of Mt Darwin, Zimbabwe. As children, visiting my grandparents was always a saga. A country bus would drop us off by the main highway, and then we would trek for miles on a dirt road, before the winding road reached their farm. I could identify their farm from all of the other isolated bush farms, because my grandparents actually had a real “farmhouse” on the land, as opposed to groups of round mud thatched huts. 

 

​   The "grand" adventure and of visiting our grandparents involved the fact that their farmhouse does not have access to electricity. There is no indoor plumbing. No running water. If you needed a glass of water, you need to go fetch water from a well, river, pond, or use captured rain water. And if you want a HOT cup of tea, you need to build a fire to boil water. No microwave or stove-top. The farmhouse has walls and a roof. As children, we discovered that bats loved to hide inside the dark corners of the beams holding up the roof; occasional snakes liked to rest in the shade of the house; and baboons like to visit to steal mangos from the nearby mango trees.

Graduating Class of 2016

Both grandparents have passed on. Their surviving children gave the local community access to the farmhouse, to use as a preschool. To this day, the property does not have electricity or running water, but the local community was using the building as a preschool. On the left is the first graduating class of preschoolers of 2016 at the farmhouse.
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Mt Darwin and its surrounding region is like an Eden. Some places are so wild, one wonders whether a human has yet traversed through all the wild rolling wilderness. One sees mist hovering over the valleys and hills in the early mornings before the sun heats up. One encounters wild animals here, and among the many isolated farms, one can live for days without seeing any human passers-by.

The children get to bathe in rivers, and are as connected to nature one can be. But they do not have access to the educational materials that are part of our changing world and economy. In this case, the local community cannot afford to build an adequate, well equipped facility for preschoolers.

In addition, when parents cannot afford to purchase notebooks, or pencils or textbooks, many times the teachers and schools cannot step in and help to provide those materials. You may wonder, how expensive can a notebook or a pencil be? Yet some families cannot afford the extra pennies needed to purchase these items.

There are many other schools like this all over the world, children are trying to learn with their inquisitive minds, open to the world… but they do not have access to adequate books, or learning tools.

​The little preschool in Mt Darwin continued to operate as a school until the middle of 2017, but the local community was not able to continue providing teachers, and running the school. Currently the preschool is on hiatus.

Our goal is to reach out to “bush schools”, rural schools, and underserved schools. We will collaborate with these schools and communities to provide computer tablets and materials that will make education and learning easier and accessible.

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Logistical Support and Sponorship

Graduating Party and Speeches 2016

All schools are not created equal.
Some schools have electricity access, running water, and possibly internet access. Such schools would be be equipped with computer tablets more quickly due to less complicated logistical issues to be resolved.

Schools similar to the Mt Darwin preschool clearly need access to electricity (solar energy being the more sustainable option), to power and recharge computer tablets. And of course, such a school would need to have access to the internet.

We work with such schools to raise the funds and equipment necessary for them to have online Learning, however, we do not distribute computer tablets BEFORE the practical logistics are in place. We do not want to provide computer tablets that students are not be able to utilize.
Schools, such as the one above, are the very schools that need your help the most, and we do want to give them access to easier and more cost effective educational materials and learning.

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Learn more about Sponsorship Levels and Logistical Support