By Alex Sanderson | Assistant to Patricia Parker MBE
NEW KINDERGARTEN OPENED IN REMOTE VILLAGE IN NORTH DARFUR, SUDAN, THANKS TO JOANNA LUMLEY, PATRON OF KIDS FOR KIDS
Villagers in Abu Digeise, North Darfur, never thought that their dream of a kindergarten for their children could become reality. Yet on 9th September The Kids for Kids Joanna Kindergarten opened its doors for the first time to 100 small children in their remote village.
“The absence of education for young children means that they lack essential stimulation during the crucial formative years of their lives. Opportunities are lost which can never be regained, and which diminish the development potential of the children forever” says Mary Clark, UN Poverty Alleviation Consultant. 98% of women in the villages of Darfur are illiterate, yet they know that education is the best way out of poverty. The UN WHO reported last week that Darfur has the highest incidence of malnutrition in Sudan. 28% of children are acutely malnourished. Mothers cannot afford to feed their families. People walk long distances to fetch every drop of water. Without help many children will die this year. For almost 15 years Kids for Kids has been adopting villages, providing water close at hand, health care, livelihood techniques and, to give essential protein, minerals and vitamins to the children, and an income to the mothers, goat loans which transform the health of the children. Village leaders report that there is no malnutrition in Kids for Kids’ villages, but fulfilling the dream of a Kindergarten seemed an impossibility.
Until last year, when Joanna Lumley, Patron of Kids for Kids, offered to support a Kindergarten. The Kids for Kids Joanna Kindergarten is the second Kindergarten provided by Kids for Kids. “I could not be more thrilled and happy that the Kindergarten will welcome its first children today. All my love and congratulations and encouragement and cheers and vast starbursts of joy I send to all those who teach and learn there” Joanna said this morning.
In October 2013 the first was completed in Abu Nahla. Funds for this school came from a painting donated to Kids for Kids by HRH The Prince of Wales. When the State Director of Education visited the first Kids for Kids’ Kindergarten he said nothing like it had been seen in Darfur. “I am grateful to the State Ministry of Education for promising to fund the teachers in our Kindergartens” said Patricia Parker MBE, founder of the charity “without this we would not be able to build any schools. Their commitment will ensure the sustainability of the Kindergartens and with the help and hard work of the communities I know that the dream of the mothers of Darfur will not only become reality today, but this dream will last and last, giving a real chance of a better future to many generations to come in the villages of Darfur.”
Two more Kids for Kids’ Kindergartens will be opened this year in Darfur. Kids for Kids is inviting people to become Children’s Champions and to support projects over a three year period including education, the provision of water and the funding of village midwives. These are the dreams of mothers in Darfur.
$35 buys 20 bricks to help build a kindergarten
$150 pays for education for one child for one year
$245 pays for a stong cross-bred donkey (to pull the school bus!)
Thank you for your support. You are transforming lives!
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