A New Playground, Health Checks and Sports Day fun: an update from our ECD centres in Loco and Wandago, Uganda

The children at the two Early Childhood Development Centres we support in two slum communities in Uganda have been doing well since their school reopened after lockdown in January 2022. Read more about how they are getting on and meet four year old Namusisi.

To support younger children from the hardest pressed families in Loco and Wandago slum communities, in Uganda, two Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres provide 150 children aged 3-6 with bright and colourful classrooms and an outdoor playspace in which to learn, play and grow. 

Here, the children benefit from a high quality curriculum developed within the Ugandan ECD framework; learning and developing through songs, dances, crafts and games.

All 150 children at the Wandago and Loco Early Childhood Centres are thriving. They were able to open again in January this year, after the longest lockdown in the world and were thrilled to return to a newly renovated playground...

All the children received uniforms and did well in their first termly exams. Thanks to continual awareness raising and conversation with parents, punctuation at drop off and pick up has improved, along with the children’s growing enthusiasm for learning. 

A health screening took place at the start of 2022 when the schools reopened where six children were found to be malnourished. These children have since been referred to Nalufenya Nutritional Department (a national children’s referral hospital) for regular checkups. Five have recovered and been discharged and one is still attending the nutritional clinic to receive foods to boost his immunity.

Each child was given a health check earlier this year

Each centre has its own management committee who get together regularly for workshops and meetings to evaluate how the centres are running, how the term has gone and how the children are learning, as well as addressing any issues of security and sanitation.

The teachers work hard to find creative ways to teach the children and help them learn. Watch how Desire, one of the teachers at Loco ECD plans her lessons and is helping the children to learn about letters. Desire is one of our 'Lead Storytellers' and you can find out more about her here >>  

The children at Loco ECD centre recently enjoyed an action packed Sports Day with plenty of games and activities including a sack race, a 'fill the bottle' race and musical chairs.

​Watch how much fun they had... 

MEET NAMUSISI BEVU

Namusisi Bevu is four years old and currently studies in middle class the Early Childhood Development Centre we support in Loco, Uganda. We first met her during lockdown when she began to join in with our cluster learning groups, to help the children keep up with learning whilst schools were closed.  

She was particularly noticeable among all the other children at the clusters, as her attendance was really good and she had such a keen interest in learning, despite the fact she had never been to school before.

At first, all she would do was scribble on her home learning packages, just to strengthen her finger muscles and get used to the classroom setting, but because she had such an enthusiasm for learning, she progressed quickly with the help of her mum.

When schools opened this year, we enrolled her in middle class and she now loves participating in all the activities on offer at the centre. Her love for learning is still strong and she is now trying to copy words on her own. She is getting on well with the other children and she loves her teachers, but also says that at home, her mum is her best friend.

Thank you so much to our supporters for making this programme possible and supporting children like Namusisi learn, play and thrive at school.

READ MORE ABOUT OUR WORK IN UGANDA >>

READ ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT >>