Neema responds to this vicious cycle of poverty by providing crucial educational and health resources to children within the family and community. Providing for children’s basic needs at a high-quality, English-immersion school ensures attendance and promotes whole-child development. “We improve the child’s environment from every angle by requiring parent involvement,” Mandy explained. “We respond to family stressors or emergencies by providing the social work, healthcare and advice they need, including emphasizing family planning. Children can use their English skills to help their family and community throughout their lifetime. We specifically invest in village development through investing in local infrastructure, human capital development and providing jobs.” When students graduate from the Uru Community Pre and Primary School, aka the Uru Academy, they move on to Neema’s sponsorship program where they are supported until they complete secondary school or university. According to Mandy, students who graduate secondary school typically have less children, better health, stronger financial stability and children of their own who also will graduate from secondary school. But it’s important to remember that the Uru Academy is more than a school; it's a community-based poverty alleviation project that aims to break the cycle of unemployment, poor health, high fertility and crime by providing crucial educational and health resources to children and their families. Quality education, positive adult-child relationships and adequate health and nutrition are essential to children's development. Neema International provides a multilateral, place-based intervention that meets these needs. “We are a place-based project, meaning that we take a multi-level approach to alleviating poverty in the community,” Mandy explained. “Neema International designed the Uru Academy to stop the cycle of poverty before it begins by providing for babies as young as six months to 10-year-old
Mandy with some of her kids and staff members, plus one of the Neema pups!
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