Mgangeni crèche given toy donations from Norwegian local community
Zama, Hashini and Sigve visited a crèche in Mgangeni, uMzinto on January 10. They brought a big suitcase full of toys, collected from a local community in Norway.
The local leaders of Mgangeni saw the need of a crèche in the area, and this crèche was finally opened in 2018 as the only day care centre in the area. Every weekday up to 40 children spend time here, looked after by three volunteers. The volunteering is often mandatory for start-up crèches, but in the long run they can create paid work and make a further contribution to the local development.
The crèche has up until now been poorly equipped and was in dire need of materials for playing and learning. These specific toys were donated by the families of two nurses from Selje in Norway; Ann-Cathrin Nygård and Hanne Kristine Otneim. They are very happy to learn that the old toys can give new joys to children 10 000 km away.
Proper day care for pre-school children is an important measure for sustainable development in rural areas as it enables parents, and especially the mothers, to go to work and provide for their families without worries about their children’s care. It is also an arena for a first introduction to education.
According to modern science, toys are good for the childrens’ development, as role playing makes them learn and understand complex relations better and faster.
Among AVA’s long term goals is to build and develop more crèches like this one and provide them with toys and learning materials. Kind contributions and donations are much appreciated.
The next step for AVA is to provide the crèche with proper learning materials, such as alphabet posters, number posters and writing/drawing materials. Also swings, playing apparatus and sports equipment could be useful.
Comments are closed