Thandeka CBCC was established in the year 2012 and is located in TA Mtwalo in Mzimba North. Thandeka CBCC is one of the beneficiaries CBCC benefitting from a 2 years School Readiness Initiative project funded by Roger Federer Foundation and is implemented in Mzimba North.

All along, children have been using the church as their CBCC because they did not have their own structure. It has been very difficult for the caregivers to keep on using the church as the CBCC. “Each and every day after the lesson is over we have the task of parking the 8 learning areas in the sacks and carry them home as we cannot leave them in the church, so it’s a tiresome task to us as caregivers,” said Stockia Soko (caregiver).

Thus, the community with their chief sat down and discussed the way forward to help their children and to ease the work of the caregivers. The aim was to have their own structure so that they are not to be disturbed anymore. So they gathered themselves as a community and mold bricks but during this time they were still using the church as an ECD center.  

THANDEKA CBCC

After the CBCC management committee got trained by the SOLINIA, under SRI, the CBCC management committee informed their chief of what they learnt especially on their roles and responsibilities and also SRI project. The Village Head Thandeka was very happy and interested about this great news in his area as what he heard was something that as a community have already begun. All the chiefs sat down and within no time the land was allocated as where the CBCC can be built together with child friendly toilets, natural playground. just to mention a few. With the help of the CBCC management committee, he sensitized the community members to source timber so as to have their CBCC roofed with the iron sheets. After this sensitization, the community members sourced the timber and the 2 roomed CBCC was built and roofed with the iron sheets.

They were not given nails, but rather they managed to purchase the nails and unfortunately there was a shortfall of one iron sheet of which was bought right away after they noticed. As of now, with their own effort and being the owner of that CBCC, natural playground is in place at Thandeka CBCC, one room has been plastered and they have managed to build two child friendly toilets.

The chief, parents, CBCC management committee and community at large together with the caregivers are so happy that they received the iron sheets. “The SOLONIA under the project SRI has really helped us here as our children will no longer use the church since we have our own structure in good condition. In addition to that, we have also been given solar kit plus the Tablet which has made our caregivers to be resourceful and lessen up their work.” the chief said.

During the training that the CBCC management committee got from SOLINIA, they were also sensitized on the importance of the natural playground at a CBCC like Thandeka. They were told that, learning through play is vital for the children thus the natural play ground is needed at a CBCC. Upon being trained, the community got organized and sourced the materials like poles for the natural playground. “I am very happy with the projects that are taking place at our CBCC as with the presence of this playground is helping to increase the enrolment of children at our CBCC” the caregiver said.