AKFC Fellow Marc Lombardo blogs from Arua, Uganda

Excerpt: The schools I visited are part of the renowned Madrasa Early Childhood Program (MECP), an initiative of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF). The program was started in 1986 to provide pre-school education to underserved Muslim communities in the coastal region of Kenya. The first MECP curriculum combined contemporary pre-school content with local Swahili culture, language, songs, and stories. The word madrasa comes from the Arabic ‘a place of study’. In the context of this program, however, the word refers to pre-schools.

The MECP is now 30 years old and has established over 200 pre-schools in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and has reached over 70,000 students.

Read more: Learning through play in northern Uganda | landmarc

Previously on Ismailimail…

Award-winning Pamiri language film screened at Ismaili Centre Calgary Ismaili Jamatkhana and Centre: Calgary, Alberta | Beyond the divide Dr. Shoukat Dedhar wins Distinguished Medical Lecturer Award Amin Ladak’s Kaenat Enterprise: Engineer’s Business Rahim Mohamed: A Brief History of the Ismailis in Canada Dr Philip Wood – Historian – Aga Khan University’s Study of Muslim Civilisations Children learn best through play – Aga Khan Foundation’s Madrasa Early Childhood Programme (MECP) | Daily Monitor Uganda