Childcare centers in Malawi are usually initiated and operated by the Community Based Organizations (CBOs) - groups of local people (volunteers) who run social development programs in their villages. The programs are based on needs of each individual community and cover areas such as orphan care, home-based-care for chronically ill, food security, adult education etc. Many CBOs choose to support children of the pre-school age and therefore operate childcare centers offering care and early education.

Their activities are fundamental for the development of Malawi, as they are addressing problems which the Malawi government doesn‘t have the capacity to deal with. Majority of them are though challenged by lack of management experience, support and funds.

The two main community organizations that boNGO works with are the Tiyende Pamodzi CBO and the Umodzi-Mbame CBO.

Tiyende Pamodzi CBO

In 2002 a group of people (volunteers) from the Kantimbanya village decided to set up four childcare centers for children aged three to six. It was a reaction on the difficult life situation of the growing number of orphans. The centers were to provide these children with a stimulating and safe environment in which they could receive proper care, food and early education. The self-help group also looked into the situation of chronically ill (mostly HIV/AIDS patients) and started a home-based-care program. Nowadays the group of over 100 volunteers is a registered Community Based Organization called Tiyende Pamodzi (Let’s Go Together) with a democratically elected Executive Committee of eight members.

Short videos from the four childcare centers: Mango, Masuku, Nthaya Mwana and Chimwabvi

The Mango childcare center is now in the process of becoming a Model Childcare Center, capable of serving as a training facility for teachers from other centers.

Umodzi-Mbame CBO

The community based organization Umodzi-Mbame CBO in the Juma village was formed in 2006 in cooperation with the local villagers and three European volunteers, who came to Malawi with the vision of setting up a quality childcare center and eventually founded the organization boNGO. The project of developing the Model Childcare center Umodzi-Mbame was in the beginning threatened  by the insufficient participation of the local community but with time the local volunteers got truly involved and nowadays the Umodzi-Mbame CBO has several strong leaders who are actively managing it.

Other CBOs

Since 2005 boNGO has worked with another CBOs that operate childcare centers and have been participating in the teacher training.

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