"My son cries when there is vacation and he cannot go to school"

The Family Care Pre-School, Gwako, F.C.T., services a community that lies on the far outskirts of Abuja and boasts a population of 8,000 residents. When we were first shown the previous village school, we were led to a dilapidated building with over 50 children squeezed into each makeshift classroom. After seeing the poor conditions in place for children ready and eager to learn, we started work on the Family care Pre-School, which will provide free education for over 40 students.

The pupils are now registered and waiting eagerly for their new school building, which will be completed in the early months of 2002. Pre-primary education is not something readily available in Central Nigeria, especially for under-privileged and low-income families.

Even though a child's mind is eager and capable of learning scholastics from a very young age, the children from many families surrounding Gwagwalada, F.C.T, were unattended and unchallenged. Family Care Abuja took note of this lack of educational facilities for young children, and initialized a day school for three to six year-olds. "My son cries when there is vacation and he cannot go to school", was the comment of one grateful parent whose introverted son has become a well-balanced, intelligent child - just one example of what attention and care, both scholastically and emotionally, can do.

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Family Care volunteer caring for orphan boy

Family Care volunteers caring for orphans in various centers around the country

Family Care volunteers caring for orphans in various centers around the country.

Our Children's Aid and Orphanage Programs have been continuing throughout 2001, with several new centers added to the list of benefiting Homes. While we provide materials, goods, and physical help, our goal is to help people help themselves, so we have concentrated on classes, training, and guidance to help the caretakers in their task of caring and providing for the children.

Family Care provides supplements for the children's diet with our donations of proteins, staples, milk powder, and other foodstuffs; we renovate and furnish buildings and nurseries; we provide clothing, kitchen and household items, and all the special treats that children love.

But we as volunteers and individual now that the greatest need in a child's life is love, attention, and that special moment reserved only between you and him - and this is our goal: to provide that love that is rare.

We don't live with them permanently or share all the moments of their young lives, but we treasure the times we do spend with them and they know that; so treasure them as well.