Pelisha Kaunda lives in Jumbo Village, with her son and daughter-in-law, 6 nephews, and 2 grandchildren. Pelisha’s own education was very disrupted: “I dropped out of school due to early pregnancy and did not get the chance to go back.”

Since then, Pelisha and her classmates from Chikwina Secondary School formed an alumni group where they made a plan to start a preschool in the community. The preschool started in 2016, and usually registers over 50 children a year. 

However, the preschool currently lacks adequate teaching and playing materials, and furniture. They share the space with the community’s church, making it difficult to decorate the space appropriately, and often classes are disturbed.  

Pelisha hopes that the new ECD project will help provide the preschool with appropriate teaching materials. The school has a small farm, so she also would like to be trained on organic farming methods in order to harvest enough food to support the children. 

The community is already mobilising resources and labour in order to begin constructing a permanent structure for their preschool. Pelisha wants to see even more community engagement through the project’s awareness raising: “Community members need to be aware of the importance of ECD.” 

“I want to help these children who I know will grow up to be teachers and nurses to help back their community just like I am doing today.”

Temwa’s new ECD project will support people like Pelisha to enable more children to access a quality preschool education. The project will help resource and organise already existing preschools, while establishing new preschools in areas where there is community demand.

To see more about our education programme click here