Host Organization Details
My Lord Jesus Cares Daycare Centre
My Lord Jesus Cares Daycare Centre is a private educational centre that is striving to provide affordable and quality early education to the young children living in the Labadi district of Accra.
The GOAL of the daycare is to provide supportive, quality and accessible early education for children who are not old enough to attend primary school.
Before My Lord Jesus Cares Daycare Centre was opened, there were no centres in the Labadi community that catered specifically towards the young children who were not yet old enough to attend primary school.
Due to the socio-economic background of many families in the community many parents had no choice but to bring their children to work with them. Many of these families worked in the nearby Makola Market and therefore, children were spending their early years in the market with their parents instead of receiving an early childhood education.
By opening the daycare, the Amoah sisters,(founders), have provided these families with an affordable centre to send their children during the day. The Amoah sisters also provide the unique feature of extended hours. Many daycare centres and schools in Ghana finish early in the afternoon and parents are forced to leaved work early to go pick up their children. By extending their hours the My Lord Jesus Cares Daycare Centre, is able to accommodate the working families in the Labadi community..
The daycare started with 6 enrolled students and has grown into approximately 75 students! The centre is dedicated to children in the Labadi area who are between the ages of 2 and 7 years old and who are not yet ready to attend primary school.
The daycare is situated in a central location of the Labadi community, therefore, many of the children are dropped off each morning by their older siblings who are on their way to school! The Amoah sisters have turned their home into a welcoming daycare for the Labadi community.
The subjects taught at My Lord Jesus Cares Daycare Centre, are offered completely in English. The founders believe that by teaching the children how to learn, communicate and understand English at an early age, will greatly enhance their educational requirements in the future, geared towards future employment.
Children at the daycare are taught counting, alphabet, colours, basic mathematics, weather, English, singing and dancing! Every Friday at the daycare the schedule is regular classes in the morning and then structured playing in the afternoon, organized by the teachers.
Since the opening of the daycare in 2004, they have had six classes of students successfully graduate and move on to primary school. With increasing enrolment at the school more children are receiving a proper early childhood education and the daycare has been able to employ community members to help at the centre. Currently there are four teachers and one caretaker from the Labadi community who work there.
Does this organization have any religious affiliations?
My Lord Jesus Cares Daycare Centre, is a Christian School. The students participate in religious activities such as morning prayers, religion studies and learning about the basic principals of Christianity. Volunteers are not required to participate in religious activities nor do they have to be Christian to work at this centre.
My Lord Jesus Cares Daycare Centre was founded in 2004 by Mrs. Charlotte Amoah and her sister Dina Amoah. Both sisters reside in the Labadi district and are involved citizens of their community. When Charlotte Amoah realized that many children in the community were not receiving a proper early childhood education because of lack of available centers, she derived a plan to turn her own home into a daycare! The Amoah sisters worked very hard with their own hands painting, pouring cement and converting the outside courtyard into a canopied classroom. In 2004 their hard work paid off and the daycare was opened! .
My Lord Jesus Cares Daycare is located in the Labadi district of Accra. The population of the Labadi community is roughly 35,000 people, mostly young families. This district is located approximately twenty minutes from downtown central Accra where the largest Market in Accra is located, the Makola market. With its close proximity to Makola, many residents living in the Labadi district work at the market.
In the 2000 census that was conducted in Ghana it was found that 46% of the Ghanaian population was illiterate, 21% of that in the Greater Accra region. With these staggering results initiative was taken to make the young leaders of Ghana literate. Since the last census the Ghanaian government has expanded their budget for Education and they are striving to make public education from Primary to Senior Secondary School more accessible to everyone in Ghana.
In the Labadi district there are five Primary to JSS public schools as well as four Senior Secondary Schools. The average child in Ghana starts in the public education system at around age six. Access to affordable early education such as nursery school is still quite limited, putting children at My Lord Jesus Cares at a great advantage. By having access to early education at My Lord Jesus Cares, children are starting their education at an earlier age and are increasing their chances at a higher education!
My Lord Jesus Cares Daycare Centre, is privately funded and relies completely on registration fees from the students. Teacher's salaries, school supplies and food for the children is all paid for by registration fees.
Donations of children's books, games (bowling sets, tennis rackets, twister), balls, skipping ropes, slates, chalk, pencils, notebooks, pens, markers, pencil crayons, crayons (thick ones are good!), tape, glue, rulers, curtains/cloth to hang to keep the sun out, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes would be greatly appreciate at the daycare.