Attending the preschool training workshop for caregivers at Kachere CBO has been one of the highlights of my stay in Malawi (so far!). It was so inspiring to see how much encouragement and confidence the preschools team give the caregivers – I learned that caregivers in rural areas are often just women within a community chosen to run the local preschool, without any training or structure to follow.

The full training consists of three phases in total, with each phase building on the last. This visit was the second phase.

Each caregiver introduced themselves and the preschool they worked in. Miriam introduced us all and what the training would include. Although the training was predominantly in Tumbuka (the native language), for me it didn’t matter! The day was active with lots singing, dancing, and different activities that the 35 caregivers could introduce into their preschools.

Miriam explained to me that one of the main difficulties for the caregivers was the lack of structure they had for the preschool day. So, Wells for Zoë gives a rough guideline of what a typical day in preschool could consist of from start to finish, giving examples of activities and songs for each learning area.

Everyone had lots of fun as Miriam and Margret had the caregivers taking part in the activities, as if they were the preschoolers themselves! Using used cartons, bottle tops and plastic bottles, there was a building corner, a drama corner, a music corner, and a nature corner, where each caregiver was free to come up with their own ideas of what they could do with kids back at their preschools.

It was a fantastic experience to see the approach that Wells for Zoë takes in training these caregivers. Miriam encouraged the caregivers by showing them that they did not need to rely on outside support to provide funding or expensive resources – that with just a little imagination, positive learning environments can be created with the most simple materials.

I am looking forward to going back to Kachere CBO in July to see the final phase of this caregiver preschool training!