It all started three years ago when Patience Matsika would find young children of less than five years of age playing on the veranda of her house situated in Lusumbami high-density suburb after knocking off during the morning shift from Hwange Colliery’s opencast mine.
By Clanton Simuchembu
“Instead of getting angry with the kids who were becoming a nuisance to my company-allocated house, I decided to establish a day care centre for them as the whole suburb did not have such a centre,” said Matsika during a recent interview with The Standard Style.
The nearest nursery school is about 4km from Lusumbami, where some parents were sending their children, which was proving to be an arduous task for the kids who had to walk there.
This finally gave birth to Little Angels Preschool whose initial enrollment was six children. Today there are 19 girls and 21 boys and the youngest is 20 months old. There are two teachers, a cook and a grounds man.
However, it was not all rosy for Matsika as she had to apply to her employer for space to accommodate her first group of students as she was constantly moved from pillar to post in her quest to get a proper and conducive classroom block. Ironically, she is leasing a house turned classroom block from Hwange Colliery Company.
“Most of the material used by children in the playground and other related areas were sourced from companies contracted by Hwange Colliery at the opencast mine. They also delivered them free of charge to this classroom block which I am leasing,” she said.
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In order for the crèche to meet the minimum standards required by the Social Welfare Department, Matsika went to neighbouring countries to buy merchandise for resale, while her parents chipped in financially to make her dream a reality.
Little Angels Preschool was finally given the licence to operate in 2014 and it is one of the few institutions in Hwange that operates nine hours a day. The children are provided with breakfast, lunch and snacks.
The majority of students are children of civil servants and colliery contractors such as Mota-Engil. There are less than five students enrolled at the institution whose parents or guardians are employed by the colliery because the company owes its employees more than 36 months’ salary.
“My wish is to have more kids from Hwange Colliery employees being enrolled at this institution as it is my employer of choice, despite the financial problems. There is always a need to prepare our young children on how life is at primary education level,” she said.
The crèche which acts as a feeder for upmarket schools such as Thomas Coulter Primary School, has its share of challenges, such as water shortages, space to increase enrollment and late payment of fees, which at times have a negative impact on the day-to-day running of the school.
“We are also appealing to the donor community to assist us with the provision of computers as it is now going to be mandatory for the children to have an understanding of information technology,” she said.
