Na Shou tells of the changes she has seen in Poyong village in Ximeng where she is a preschool teacher. She appreciates the development the preschool has brought to the village. The children have had no access to preschool education and the introduction of Preschools of the Future (POF) by Humana People to People has brought much relief to the impoverished families and their children. Now children learn Mandarin from an early age, thus making it easier for them when they start in primary school.

The project invited doctors to carry out health checks for the preschool children.

“It had never come to my mind or occurred in my dreams that our poor village could have a preschool. But this became a reality and now our village has a preschool named ‘Little Sun Preschool’. Before it was turned into a school the place was covered with garbage and overgrown with grass. The Project Team together with the Village Committee mobilized and organized the villagers to weed and to clean up the place. A fence was installed for the safety of the preschool children. Tables, chairs and teaching materials were brought to the new classroom. As a teacher I arranged nicely the furniture and toys to make the classroom neat. On the 7th of September 2015 the preschool was established.

Preschool children now learn in clean, comfortable and safe classrooms.

I learnt a lot about Early Childhood Education during the pre- job training,. What I learned comprised of how to teach preschool children, how to play games, health care, children safety and other necessary skills and knowledge. The first time the children came to school was a nightmare. The children thought they had come to a strange place - they were crying and shouting that they wanted to go back home. This was really a great pressure for me. Looking at their lovely innocent faces I told myself that these children should stay here and not give up and I was also determined to stick to my responsibility - taking care of them. At first I felt lost while standing in front of the children, seeing them cry. I tried different methods to teach them and suddenly noticed that they were inspired and they understood what I wanted from them. I made the bigger children take care of the smaller ones, to help them to go to the toilet, to bring out the toys for playing and to play with them. Little by little the children stopped crying and started playing together and enjoying the games.  At first it was difficult to teach them using Mandarin so I had to use the local language - Wa. Little by little I started teaching them in Mandarin and slowly they started to speak Mandarin. I taught them how to go to the toilet, how to wash their hands, faces and to brush their teeth. Some children could not eat by themselves, but I slowly taught them. I taught them how to pack the books nicely and to put back the toys in their rightful place. They learnt to clean the class and to keep things in order. In this way I had some helping hands and at the same time they acquired some life skills. I feel a sense of accomplishment in observing the transformation which has taken place from the beginning when I could only stare helplessly at the crying children - and now when we excitedly communicate with each other in Mandarin and are close together when playing games.

Preschool children now learn in clean, comfortable and safe classrooms.

It has been more than a year now, I and the children have grown and our school has grown also. Our classrooms have been renovated and decorated, so the school looks beautiful with the big outdoor toys we have received. We now have a lot of toys and books. Instead of just a fence we have beautiful decorated walls around us. Now the children learn in a clean, comfortable and safe environment.

In addition to the beautifying of our school, the children’s nutrition and health has improved. The project invited doctors who carried out health check for the children. Every day children are provided with eggs due to the nutrition program which was introduced. The parents have been given chicks so that in future they will lay eggs and thereby provide nutrition for the children.


Children are able to carry out different chores, clean their plates, clean the floor and put things in order.

For all these good things which have been provided for our preschool I sincerely want to thank Huang Yicong Foundation, China Charities Aid Foundation for Children, New Zealand Embassy and Humana People to People for their unwavering support and care. Thank you for your love in changing the lives of the children, my life and that of the village. I will continue to put more effort in improving our preschool and the lives of the preschool children”.

Brief summary of the project:
The Preschools of the future (POF) project in Ximeng is funded by Shanghai based Huang Yicong Foundation and executed by Humana People to People China. The project aims to support 540, 3-6 year old children (now we support 417) in natural villages of Ximeng County. Over the course of 3 years, the project intends to train teachers and build both the teachers’ and the community’s management capacity of the POFs. The project pays attention to children’s health and nutrition issues. It provides nutritional meals and helps to develop children’s hygiene habits in the preschool. The project aims to be sustainable by developing the community’s capacity in order to take over the POF schools after 3 years intensive project support, followed by a one year phasing out period.
 
This project is funded by Shanghai based Huang Yicong Foundation, Humana People to People Baltic  and executed by Humana People to People China.
Beside New Zealand Embassy supports the nutrition project with raising chicks and distributing eggs and China Charities Aid Foundation for Children has donated the funds for the latest renovation of the classrooms.
Contents in this article reflect only the views of the authors and not those of the funder.