Zithulele pre-school closed in 2003 due to mismanagement and lack of funding. Although children under 5 years are not legally required to attend school in South Africa, it is widely accepted that these early years are a crucial time for learning and preparing them for school. From talking to the community, we also established that having a pre-school was a priority for them and we learned lessons about why they thought it had failed.

We opened a re-established Zithulele preschool on 15 April 2009. This followed a great effort in renovating the rondavel (round house) building and a community clear-up of litter in the area. Now we have 23 children and one amazing teacher and you can see the difference that she is making.

A locally-elected management committee is responsible for the running of the school, while the parents have committed to playing an active part, for example by helping clean and maintain the preschool.
We are now raising funds to fund the teacher's salary and running costs of the school, including costs for the children's lunches. We are also looking to reach out and support other pre-schools in the area with teacher training, mentoring and resources. We want to make Zithulele Pre-school a centre of excellence where less experienced teachers can come to learn and get ideas.