Our Mission – We strengthen skills at family and community level, in sustainable practices that advance child development and learning, in 17 Swazi Communities.
Our motto – Do what you can, with what you have, now.
of Hhelehhele, selected the name Vusumnotfo
and was a veteran of World War 2
Our Problem Statement:
Vusumnotfo is a Swazi Not-for-Profit organization formed by 17 communities in northern Eswatini with the mandate to “reverse the negative cycle of dependency in ways relevant to their communities”.
Dependency is a mindset that encompasses adults relying on others to meet their needs, and solve their problems. It can inadvertently be compounded through external support not aligned with local realities, timeframes and capacities.
A dependency mindset has its roots in early childhood. A child develops the physical, emotional, language, communication, cognitive, social, and value structures that lay the foundation for their lifetime during prenatal through the first nine years.
During these early years, a child naturally depends on adults to nurture their developmental and learning needs. Although social factors play a role, if adults do not have the capacity to do so, a child’s development and learning falls behind.
Consequently, this child will have limitations to overcome. As adults they will struggle to meet their own needs or to work together to solve problems; instead relying on others to do so.
This also limits their ability to nurture the development and learning of the next generation, setting up a negative cycle of dependency.
To reverse this, we focus on four inter-related problems restricting young children from developing and learning to their full potential in rural Eswatini:
- Insufficient understanding of how young children develop and learn, and factors that influence this;
- Limited financial management practices;
- Poor nutrition practices; and
- Inadequate community infrastructure and management practices.
Accordingly our Mission reflects Eswatini’s many proverbs that the betterment of the future is through the child –
“Umntfwana ngumliba loya embili”.
Our Mission – We strengthen skills at family and community level, in sustainable practices that advance child development and learning, in 17 Swazi Communities.
Our motto – Do what you can, with what you have, now.