The Nshambya kindergarten opens for several hours each morning, in the Nshambya Community Centre. The place is close to the primary school that was newly constructed in the mid-1990s. The Nshambya Community Centre building serves at the same time as church and multi-purpose hall, which should generate enough income for the village committee to maintain the building. Construction of a new church building beside the community centre started in 2017.
Over the years the owner of NyumbaniBB raised funds for teacher salaries, furniture, teaching tools and toys.
The income from NyumbaniBB Bed & Breakfast aims to contribute to the running costs of the school and for improvement of the education of these very young children. At present the kindergarten takes care of some sixty to seventy children (between three and six years old) on a daily basis. Since 2018 we have two qualified teachers.
Part of the year, when parents go very early in the morning to the fields to work the land, the children arrive at school often without any food. Therefore they get porridge as breakfast, sometimes with a slice of bread. Though parents are asked to make a small contribution each week, this amount doesn’t cover the full costs.
When the weather is good, the children can play outside. They have several types of toys to play with, including swings. When it rains, they sit inside, on the small benches or together, on the ground when singing. Characteristic for Bukoba is the practice to cover cement floors with grass, freshly cut every few days, making the sitting on the ground bearable. In addition to playing together and practising songs, they learn Swahili and English words and basic counting.
While maintenance of the building is supposed to be taking place regularly with funds generated by the village shop, this did not happen in the last few years. Fortunately, with support from Foundation Het Bosje from The Netherlands, the building could be refurbished in 2016: the watertank was replaced, the gate repaired and several other improvements made, including painting. Refurbishment of the squat toilet and placing of a swing took place in 2018 with private donations from The Netherlands.
After further improvements, including a bed for todlers and a stone building for the kitchen used to cook the porridge, the school received official recognition from the Ministry of Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in 2019.