Mossuril Museum of Slavery's Nursery School

After a bit of an uphill climb to get there, the last stage came together quickly. As school children all over Mozambique prepare to go back to study next week after almost 3 months of annual holiday, we are adding the finishing touches to our preschool. Fun things like painting a mural and sorting out and labelling the books and toys, games and furniture have filled the days.

We have a new member for the SHINE Association, Dona Maria (in the middle painting the mural), from Milange. She will be a volunteer assistant. And Evans, pictured below on the far right, has offered to come in and give English lessons. So there will be reading, writing, math, singing, dancing, arts & crafts, and Portuguese and English on our curriculum.

Cassimo, on the far left has made a garden for the Escolinha with 3 of the SHINE women. He prefers gardening to having his photo taken but Anglea insisted he take a bow.

We have also resuscitated and repaired a Neapolitan-style puppet theatre with local puppet characters. Up until 8 years ago, this children’s puppet show was a big success in the village and local kids presented puppet edutainment. Those kids grew up and termites  had their way with the theatre's wood frame and velvet curtains but hopefully, a new band of children will make the puppets come back to life. They were donated by a Dutch school and transformed from Netherlanders into Macua characters by some of the SHINE women.

For equipment, we are building on the generous donation by Judy Guy from the UK who sent out a lot of toys and manuals in 2012. And while we are giving thanks, we are very grateful for the desk top computer being sent out from Italy by Harvard University and to all the donors via GlobalGiving who enabled the repairs on the building and for the pre-school to buy materials and equipment. 2 of our donors generously send in every month for which we are truly grateful. Those donations will now cover the Excolina's monthly water and electricity costs.

We are starting off with 35 children aged between 2 and 5 ( actually, there will be just the one 2-year-old, Quirino, whose Mum, Angela, is one of the 2 teachers. Most of the other children will be aged 3 or 4 with a handful of 5-year-olds. By 2021 we aim to accommodate 54 children. We will try to introduce more vitamins and minerals into the children’s diet via fresh fruit juice blends (such as mango, passion fruit, sweet potato, honey and lime). Home-made sorbets, spinach & pumpkin fritters, and cookies sneakily packed with dates and moringa, and the like. We will let you know how it goes on the food front. Adults here are reluctant to vary their poor diet but in the past, we have found children will. This is a district with 144,000 people of whom 80%+ suffer from sub-nutrition. With no culture of either growing or eating fruit and vegetables – except on a very limited basis – a person could practically die of Scurvy here in Mossuril.

So, Donas Fatima, Angela, Maria, Dina, and Evans and I will have our hands full a week from now.

One of the first art lessons will be for the kids to make thank you paintings for all their supporters. And, who knows, but with help from Evans, there may even be messages in English on some of them. And for June 1st, International Children’s Day (which is huge here) we will stage our first new children’s puppet show.

So thank you all. We would love to keep upgrading the pre-school as and when we can afford to. Future plans include extra early learning games and toys, a proper playground, 2 extra toilets, more mats for rest time, etc.

All over the country, school starts with the singing of the Mozambican national anthem. Once our 2 classes have mastered some of the verses, I will post a video of them. I always find it a rousing sight when I pass a school and see hundreds of children lined up and standing to attention as they sing about the monumental struggle Mozambique has had to overcome to get where it is today.

Back in Portuguese Colonial times, only 2% of native Mozambicans were allowed to go to school. Now, primary school is free for every child here, but when you don’t speak the language and you and your parents can’t somehow manage to get your birth certificate or ID card, and when you have never sat on a chair or stool, used a table or held a pen, Big School can be scary. In rural districts such as Mossuril, a lot of children drop out in their first year.

Our pre-school will help ensure that this doesn’t happen. And at the same time, we’ll spread the word on malaria prevention, basic hygiene and nutrition as well as making learning fun. I have tried to help in a lot of different ways here: with micro credits, providing skills and training, giving school support to hundreds of local kids, supporting women’s groups, helping the hospitals and introducing conservation agriculture etc. But I believe the best way to help, here, at least, is by providing pre-school education and edutainment with a nutritional boost.

We couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you