They typical attend kindergarten in two shifts: the youngest children (3-4 years) are at the kindergarten from 7-11 am and the older children (up to 6/7 years) come from 11 am to 3 pm. Whereas the toddlers only play, the older children already start to learn to read, write, calculate and they have classes of “Behaviour” and “Hygiene” which are based on the Montessori method. Knowledge about this philosophy of education is however not expected from volunteers/interns.

 

Each of the Kindergartens is attended by around 200-400 children every day.

 

One of the Kindergartens has a special group of around 250 handicapped children which are from the whole Moshi area. One parent is accompanying the children from his or her area every morning to the kindergarten.

 

Even during the actual school vacations (December and July) there are always children at the kindergartens that are for instance participating in preparation courses for children under 3 who are supposed to attend the kindergarten in the following term. Therefore it is possible to volunteer/intern throughout the year.

 

For the large amount of kids the kindergartens don’t have enough staff and therefore need volunteers. At the moment there is one educator in charge for around 25 children. Our participants are free to decide whether they also want to spend time with the handicapped children.