First Week Back

We started work on the project for the new school year this past Wednesday. The government has set the official start date for the new school year to be on the 26th of January. Being anxious to get to work on the project I met with community leaders and parents and requested the use of the school to offer a program for the Kindergarten and 1st grade. Katie and Megan are presenting lessons in arts and crafts and physical education for the children. The program runs from 9am to 12pm and we are distributing fruit and spring water to the students. We have had an excellent response from the community and have received between 21-24 children each day this past week. The teachers are also there to organize the enrollment of the students for the new school year and it has been great being able to meet with them and discuss their goals for the coming school year.
I have spoken with a lot of the mothers that have dropped off their little ones at the school and they have expressed gratitude for offering this program. They also spoke of the work we have completed the previous year and look forward to the development and advancement of the project in 2009. We plan to run this program until the official school year starts when we will be working with the local teachers to support them in their classrooms.
The fathers of the community have also completed work on the new kitchen that we will be using to facilitate the lunch program. It is a huge improvement of the previous building and the men of the community are proud to be able to introduce this addition to the community project effort. We look forward to continued construction projects involving the support wall, play court and stoves this year as well as the continuation of the food program and classroom support. We are off to a great start and Katie and Megan have brought in creative,active lessons for the children. We have developed a comprehensive curriculum for the new school year and plan to emphasize the themes and lessons of nutrition and physical education as part of the program in the coming year as well as the essentials of numeracy and literacy at the elementary level.

First Week Back