Hope Missions

Child Survival & Development

At Hope Missions we believe that the children of a community are its hope for tomorrow. It is therefore essential that we do all we can to support them and ensure their positive development. The child survival and development department has so far been responsible for the development of the three existing nursery schools, the feeding programmes, the food relief dispensed through the schoolchildren and the provision of blankets for the cold season.

As Hope Missions looks to the future we are very much focusing on sustainable development. The nursery school teachers have all received excellent training and are being encouraged to meet regularly to share development ideas and support one another. While the existing teacher:child ratio is far in excess of what would be ideal (approximately 60–70 children per teacher), the introduction of caregiver assistants from 2009 provides the teachers with welcome assistance.

Each child attending the nursery school is provided not only with a good start in life and preparatory education for primary schooling but also with a daily meal of maize porridge and groundnuts and, when available, vegetables. As the agricultural programmes expand and the villagers become more aligned with the work of Hope Missions in this area it is hoped that more land will be made available in each village to help with the costs of this programme and to ensure that vegetables can also be provided with each meal.

We ensure that each nursery school has a committee of members from the village, preferably parents of the children attending the schools. The committee are encouraged to oversee the development of the schools and to enhance the community support. They are also involved in the development of the children and are encouraged to follow up on any who are absent for a few days by speaking to their parents about the importance of early years education and socialisation.

If sufficient funding can be secured, we would like to develop a scholarship programme for the children at the nursery schools. Through this programme, and with the assistance of the teachers, we would hope to identify any gifted children and ensure that they are funded through their schooling to ensure they receive a good primary and secondary education as well, thereby securing for them the best possible start in life.

"Transforming communities through the implementation of programs which affect all areas of community life including: agriculture, education, economic empowerment, advocacy and discipleship, working through the local church and community leaders."