The Love Your Neighbour Pre-Primary School, also located in Katutura, is a private institution that aims to provide early childhood education to children whose parents lack the means to do so.
Almost 400 children are looked after here every week and prepared for school. In age-appropriate groups, they play, learn, sing and have breakfast together.
The offer includes not only full-day care, but also preschool programs and homework help for older children. In addition, there is special therapeutic and medical support for physically or mentally disabled children.
True to her motto “Through play, we learn”, Alida Swartz and her four daughters are there for the children every day.
With a lot of patience, affirmation and love, the mission is to create a warm and friendly living environment for the children, thereby laying a foundation for lifelong learning. This includes, above all, teaching the languages English and Afrikaans.
This not only prepares the children for the upcoming school life, but also paves the way for further future-oriented education.
After a devastating fire in July 2014, the facility had to be rebuilt from scratch. To this day, all support and help is needed. Since then, the kindergarten has been operating in poorly constructed corrugated iron huts.
With only a few educational resources, the young women continue to do their best to one day make their vision of a learning center for early childhood education come true, which imparts values and educational skills to children in a developmentally appropriate way during the most sensitive and formative phase of their lives.
Wadadee cares supports the Swartz family in this project, provides access to electricity and water and arranges volunteers to play and learn with the children.
After a while, we noticed that the children who come to Love Your Neighbour only get one or two slices of bread from their (foster) parents for the whole day because they don't have enough money for more. That's why Wadadee cares started building a soup kitchen to ensure that the children are provided with a warm, healthy meal every day.
With the help of numerous donors, the soup kitchen was opened in August 2017, so that the hunger of 400 children can now be satisfied every day.