BoBo. I’m Rhoda Fransisco and I founded Moana Nursery in our local community with my colleague, Naomi in Maldeco, Mangochi.
We now have 80+ children joining us every day. Our nursery is lively, noisy and full of our community ‘s little ones enjoying their time with us.
I started Moana in 2023 as I noticed so many young children were going to the markets with their mums whilst she sold vegetables – as mum had to earn a few Kwacha for food.
Being at the market isn’t safe – mothers can’t keep their eyes on the little ones – it’s near a very busy road and mothers had to therefore strap their children to their backs all day which is exhausting.
Children start school at 6 years old in Malawi and I already had my first two boys at school. I thought I’d get my daughter into a nursery but there are so few around now as many had closed during covid and never re-opened.
Naomi and I have worked with young children for many years and we decided to start a nursery ourselves. We registered with the local district council as an official Early Childhood Development Centre (EDC). We rented two empty rooms near the market and started with five children attending – every week the numbers of little ones joining us grew.
I love working with children and was a children’s librarian previously. Both Naomi and myself have always worked with children so we were happy to offer a safe place for children to come and join us every day.
Unfortunately the Malawian government does not supply any resources to help support the children at EDC’s. We do have a few books and toys which we make the most of. We spend time with the children singing and dancing and playing. It fills my heart with joy to see the little children so happy here.
Our numbers grew over the last two years – we have great ambitions for our children but need support in giving them more quality resources such as books, good quality educational toys and outdoor play equipment
We are delighted to be in partnership with the UK charity, Mwana.
In the past Mwana has donated funds for books, mats, pencils, blackboards and sports equipment for outside play.
If we had more basic educational resources – pencils, paper, dolls, toys, more educational toys we would be able to offer even more to our young children.
We have aspirational plans for our children – getting them ready for school at age six. We love our children, they are safe every day, have fun with their friends and we know we are helping them.
We thank you all – whatever you donate – it goes direct to buying resources right here in Malawi.
