Free preschool, daily meals, and clean water for one of Harare’s most underserved communities.

In Mbare, one of Harare’s oldest and most densely populated neighborhoods, most young children have no access to early childhood education at all. Overcrowded classrooms, underfunded schools, and the compounding pressures of Zimbabwe’s prolonged economic crisis leave families with few options. Nest Zimbabwe exists to change

Since 2021, in partnership with I Am Zimbabwe Trust, Nest Zimbabwe has operated continuously inside the I Am Mbare School for Orphans and Vulnerable Children — providing 62 preschool-age children with trained teachers, daily nutritious meals, clean water, learning materials, and play-based, trauma-informed care.
 
In a community where hunger and instability are daily realities, Nest Zimbabwe is built around a simple conviction: children cannot learn if they are hungry, scared, or unseen. Every session includes two nutritious meals. Clean water is provided on-site. Educators trained in Nest’s healing-centered pedagogy create a classroom where children lead their own inquiry, build social-emotional skills alongside literacy and numeracy, and develop the kind of confidence that carries forward into primary school — and beyond. Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Education has visited Nest Zimbabwe and held it up as a model for what preschool education in the country should look like. That recognition is not incidental. It is evidence that what is happening in Mbare has implications far beyond it.

Nest Zimbabwe also reaches beyond the classroom. Caregiver orientation events bring parents into the school’s world. Income-generating workshops — on baking, urban mushroom farming, and other skills — extend the program’s support to families directly. Beginning in 2026, a new parenting workshop series brings structured caregiver support, deepening the school’s impact on the community.