The Childrens Centre and Nursery Education
The Children’s Centre
In June 2015 Village Rwanda UK and Gihembo Forward (GiFo) began building the Community Centre to provide classrooms for nursery children, a venue for community meetings, a healthcare hub, and a training facility for small business enterprise.
The clearing of the site and construction in local materials, using a village labour force, happened very quickly. A trustee visit by Tricia, Margo and Chris in early 2016 celebrated the completion of the building. The children, teachers and whole community are now making full use of their new facility.
Replacing the basic pit latrine in 2018, two eco-composting toilets and hand washing stations were built by the community. In 2022, World Vision, working with the Rwandan Water and Sanitation Corporation, have brought piped water to the Children’s Centre for the benefit of the local community. In 2025, electricity arrived at the children’s centre.
The building is proving to be a valuable community hub. It is where outreach projects to promote adult education and family health, with basic nutrition and healthcare education for parents are held, as well as GiFo board meetings, teacher training, and community projects, such as the safer stoves and the sewing groups take place.
Nursery Feeding Programme
From the start, one element of the nursery school has been to provide a nutritious lunch for all the children. GiFO employ a caretaker and school cook are employed. The cook prepares either a daily protein porridge and twice weekly hot meals. All the reports show that the children’s health is greatly improved during their time in the nursery school.
Nursery Education
Morning and afternoon classes take place at the Gihembo Nursery school, which is based in the Children’s Centre. Qualified teachers ensure that 70 of the youngest children from the local area benefit from learning new skills together through interactive teaching methods, thus preparing them for primary school education at the age of six.
