First Steps to a Great Future
A meeting was held on April 16th to allocate 22 x free nursery school places to children in our community on the Seibo Kids Programme. With Malawi slowly returning to normal and school attendance increasing overall our allocation grew and by mid-April we had an opportunity to allocate 22 vacant spaces across our network of nursery school partners.
The meeting was held at the Mother Teresa Children’s Centre and was attended by our team and Allocation Committee members drawn from different churches in the Chilomoni community.
Of 16 forms reviewed on the day 10 children were deemed eligible bringing the total number of beneficiaries of free nursery schooling to 80! Of the remaining applications 2 were above the age limit while the remaining applications require additional information before a final decision can be made.
The main challenge was to find children living in the nearby vicinity of the nursery where a space had come available. Allocating children to a nursery far from home has not worked in the past and often results in absenteeism. Plans are in place to host another meeting to allocate remaining places to ensure as many children as possible get the best possible start in life!

Meet the New Kids!

Meet Eliza:

Allocated to Miracle Nursery, Eliza was born in May 2018. She lives in Sigerege with her parents and 4 x siblings in a rented house. At time of starting nursery Eliza’s weight was 15kg and her height was 88.7cm. Her family survive by doing ‘piece-work’ such as doing washing for others and selling sand.

Meet Samson:

Allocated to Watipa Nursery, Samson was born in February 2017 and lives with his parent and 3 x siblings in Sigerege. His family struggles to find food and sometimes go without. At time of starting nursery Samson’s weight was 15kg and his height 94.5 cms. Samson’s dad commented. ‘The day that my child started school was a happy day for me, I felt relieved from the shame of keeping the child at home while his age mates are in school. Thank you Seibo for such a great opportunity, may you continue the good work and reach out to others.’

Meet Rejoice:

Allocated to Atamandike Nursery, Rejoice was born in January 2017 and lives with her mom and older brother. They live in a house with no windows and survive on income derived from ‘piece work’. Rejoice’s mom has a small loan from a village bank which she is also struggling to repay. At time of starting nursery Rejoice’s weight was 14.7kg and her height was 98.8cms.

Meet Gracious & Grace:

Allocated to Yankho Nursery the twins were born in February 2018. Coming from a large family of 10 neither child had ever attended school and Gracious was deemed to be under-nourished. Finding food for 10 people is a challenge and during the growing season they rented a farm but had to borrow money for fertilizer. At time of starting school Grace & Gracious weighed 15.7kgs & 14.5kgs respectively.

Meet Hanna:

Allocated to Abundant Life Nursery, Hanna was born in May 2017 and lives with her parents and 3 x siblings in Sigerege. Hanna’s dad has health issues that prevent him from getting permanent work and in the past Hanna did attend nursery but had to stop due to the cost. At time of starting school Hanna weighed 14.8 kgs with a height of 97.7 cm.

Meet Hopeson:
Allocated to Yankho nursery, Hopeson who was born July 2018 lives with his mother and 4 x siblings in Sigerege. Hopeson’s mom supports her 5 x children by washing clothes and selling sand and struggles to put food on the table every day. The family lives in rented accommodation and also struggle to pay the monthly rent of Mk 5,000. At time of starting school Hopeson weighed 15kgs with a height of 94.2 cms.