Improving School Readiness for children in Malawi

Aim

CultureCraft aims to leverage culturally rich learning resources to improve school readiness for children aged 3-6 in Malawi.

The CultureCraft endeavour

Welcome to the Culture Craft Early Learning; a programme to boost early childhood education in Malawi. We aim to empower young minds, aged 3-6, with locally sourced, culturally rich learning tools. Our mission? Giving Malawian children a headstart for lifelong learning! 

Across Africa, young children are often confined to desks, attempting to learn in ways unfit for their curious minds. We work together with African academics and educators, and believe in a different approach—play-based learning rooted in culture. But many tools come from the Global North, lacking relevance to Malawian children's daily life.

That's why Ubuntu partners with local artists, musicians, and storytellers to craft engaging and sustainable resources mirroring Malawian culture. These materials, aligning with the local curriculum, embrace traditional songs, tales, games and traditions, aiding teachers, parents, and caregivers in nurturing learning through familiarity.

Our vision is clear: impacting 100,000 plus young lives, setting the stage for a brighter educational journey for each one of them. Join our movement, contribute what you can, and be part of transforming the way we educate our youngest, setting them on a path for lifelong success.

What the money will be used for?

The raised funds will drive three pivotal processes crucial to this transformative initiative.

Firstly, your support enables us to engage esteemed African artists, storytellers, and musicians integral to crafting the foundational audiovisual materials at the core of our program. Discussions with these talented individuals are actively underway.

Secondly, in collaboration with educational academics from the Universities of Botswana, Witwatersrand and Malawi, we'll develop a robust learning programme rooted in educational expertise. This programme of resources, when completed, combined with the audiovisual content, will be expertly curated into easily shareable PDF and MP4 formats.

Lastly, we will facilitate the dissemination of these invaluable resources to 'early adopter' ECE teachers, starting with 50 Early Childhood Education centres. This phase enables us to monitor the impact on school readiness, before scaling.  

Your support to this not-for-profit programme is the catalyst for lasting change in the educational journey of Malawi's children.

Why Early Childhood? Why now?

2024 is the African Union's "Year of Education". With all the talk about the importance of Early Years education in setting children up for higher level learning, coupled with the understanding that children learn best when things are culturally familiar to them, this programme is set to succeed, not only within Malawi, but eventually throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. This programme has been designed in with the aim's of the AU Agenda 2063 in mind, most prominently these two aspirations:

• An Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics
• An Africa whose development is people driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children

A bit about Ubuntu

Ubuntu Education is a socially conscious Education Technology Organisation. At Ubuntu, we redefine education with an innovative and proven approach to the development of learning. Our team comprises educators with over 40 collective years immersed in African teaching and learning, and as such we have a deep-rooted understanding of the region's educational landscape.

We see ourselves as more than an organisation; we're catalysts for transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa's education space. Setting us apart is our unwavering belief: sustainable educational growth must evolve from within, not be imposed from outside. To achieve this, we prioritise the building of respectful partnerships with schools in Africa to champion local voices, valued traditions, and rich cultural heritage, complimentary to the national curriculum of Malawi. At Ubuntu, our expertise lies in sharing the knowledge, and we do this in a variety of ways.

Our dedication lies in fostering genuine, lasting change. Join us on this particular journey towards the boosting of Malawi's youngest learners.

This project successfully funded on 17th April 2024