During Botswana’s winter months (June-August), we ran a fundraising appeal to help us raise funds to feed the children that attend our community “Learn to Play” playgroup in Kacgae. In an area where 11% of children are malnourished, providing a healthy snack for the 30 students in the playgroup is a great way to motivate children to attend the environmentally-themed group and helps them to grow into healthy children who support environmental conservation.
We are thrilled to report that the fundraising campaign —which aimed at raising the $6,000 needed to feed the entire playgroup for a year — was a huge success! We were overwhelmed with the support from our network and we managed to raise $8000 by the end of the campaign. Thank you to everyone who contributed by donating or sharing. Thanks to you, the children in the playgroup will have full bellies and little minds brimming with environmental knowledge! The healthy food for the programme is being sourced locally, providing further income for local producers and ensuring the playgroup has the best possible impact for the community of Kacgae.
The playgroup continues to be a success since its inception in February 2020, with further adaptations helping to make the children more engaged and the “mamas” (local mothers who run the programme) capacitated to help make it a success. The mamas underwent a curriculum refresher course at the start of the year and have had computer training to help them with their reporting requirements for the programme. Playmats were developed by the mamas themselves to help make students more comfortable in the winter months and the new provision of food will help the children have more energy during the day and will likely boost attendance numbers. We are working closely with the Regional Council to keep up to date with developing policies for playgroups to make sure that the playgroup adheres to all necessary regulations. The regular engagements with parents of the children involved has been overwhelmingly positive and the smiling faces show that the children, aged between two and five, love the playgroup. We are now going through the process of seeking land to build our own classroom so that we no longer have to rely on the community’s Kgotla (traditional meeting place) structure, and so we can provide the mamas with a safe place to store their playgroup equipment and food supplies. We are very thankful to Kacgae’s Village District Committee for allowing us the use of their nearby facilities which we currently use to store our equipment and the use of their bathrooms which we are currently using for the children. Having our own facilities will mean that we can have everything we need in the one place and we hope the structure will also be able to be utilised for our other community projects such as craft development workshops and activities and local team meetings.
We are incredibly thankful to those that supported our food drive for the community playgroup and to the “mamas” who are working hard to run the programme. We also wish to thank the community of Kacgae for their support, especially the provision of the local Kgotla structure for us to run the playgroup until we are able to build our own classroom. This wonderful addition to our CCB activities could not be done without the expertise and support of our partners from “Learn to Play” who pioneered this community-run playgroup concept and curriculum and who work together with us to provide this amazing initiative to the community of Kacgae. Re a leboga thata!
We are thrilled to report that the fundraising campaign —which aimed at raising the $6,000 needed to feed the entire playgroup for a year — was a huge success! We were overwhelmed with the support from our network and we managed to raise $8000 by the end of the campaign. Thank you to everyone who contributed by donating or sharing. Thanks to you, the children in the playgroup will have full bellies and little minds brimming with environmental knowledge! The healthy food for the programme is being sourced locally, providing further income for local producers and ensuring the playgroup has the best possible impact for the community of Kacgae.
The playgroup continues to be a success since its inception in February 2020, with further adaptations helping to make the children more engaged and the “mamas” (local mothers who run the programme) capacitated to help make it a success. The mamas underwent a curriculum refresher course at the start of the year and have had computer training to help them with their reporting requirements for the programme. Playmats were developed by the mamas themselves to help make students more comfortable in the winter months and the new provision of food will help the children have more energy during the day and will likely boost attendance numbers. We are working closely with the Regional Council to keep up to date with developing policies for playgroups to make sure that the playgroup adheres to all necessary regulations. The regular engagements with parents of the children involved has been overwhelmingly positive and the smiling faces show that the children, aged between two and five, love the playgroup. We are now going through the process of seeking land to build our own classroom so that we no longer have to rely on the community’s Kgotla (traditional meeting place) structure, and so we can provide the mamas with a safe place to store their playgroup equipment and food supplies. We are very thankful to Kacgae’s Village District Committee for allowing us the use of their nearby facilities which we currently use to store our equipment and the use of their bathrooms which we are currently using for the children. Having our own facilities will mean that we can have everything we need in the one place and we hope the structure will also be able to be utilised for our other community projects such as craft development workshops and activities and local team meetings.
We are incredibly thankful to those that supported our food drive for the community playgroup and to the “mamas” who are working hard to run the programme. We also wish to thank the community of Kacgae for their support, especially the provision of the local Kgotla structure for us to run the playgroup until we are able to build our own classroom. This wonderful addition to our CCB activities could not be done without the expertise and support of our partners from “Learn to Play” who pioneered this community-run playgroup concept and curriculum and who work together with us to provide this amazing initiative to the community of Kacgae. Re a leboga thata!
The "mamas" from the playgroup feeling strong and equipped to deal with the day to day running of the "Learn to Play" playgroup after their refresher course earlier this year
The "mamas" sourced and made blankets and mats so that the students weren't sitting on the cold concrete during playtime
Thanks to donations from our supporters, we are now able to provide food to the children that attend the playgroup, helping to have the energy and attentiveness to learn and grow
RSS Feed
