Waldorf in rural Zimbabwe

Since 2012, I and my friends have supported the Waldorf movement in Zimbabwe and in 2014 we had the chance to found a german association called “Simba Kufunda e.V.”. Through this association, we have been working with the Waldorf movement in Zimbabwe.

I joined my mother Johanna for a series of visits to preschools in Zimbabwe in July of this year.

I was there for the one week workshop at Kufunda in August. It created the request of the kindergarten teachers for a follow up visit to show their newly designed and newly equipped Preschools as they implemented what they had learnt in the workshop. Johanna had to go back to her own kindergarten in Germany but I was staying in Zimbabwe until December. I had the chance to visit almost all Kindergartens. Surprisingly, I did not only find amazingly changed Preschools but also more preschools who want to join in our waldorf-society which was a result of the workshop.

In most of the kindergartens I could see a great change of equipment. Where the toys used to stand only straight along the wall, new doll houses and play areas were created and loved from the children. The teachers became very creative how to make their kindergartens a nicer place for the children.

In Mhondoro the Kindergarten was being fixed during the oasis game together with Kufundees. It is an amazing change.

Everyone I visited is so full with new ideas and energy to work in their kindergartens. They started giving more space for indoor and outdoor free-play which was one of the main topics of the workshop. They also practice the watercolor painting with the children according to their own possibilities.

The storytime has improved a lot through making little fairytales with little dolls and toys.

The material we brought from the “Simba Kufunda e.V.”, was well used but everywhere almost finished because of the effort the teachers put in their work.

To see this great changes and big success, even though there is still space to improve, made me very happy. The waldorf-movement starts becoming part of the everyday life for their practitioners.