To honour International Day of the Girl Child, we caught up with Marriama. Now 11 years old and in primary school, she attended a kindergarten with Sabre trained teachers when she was five. Here’s what she had to say about her time in kindergarten:

“My teachers taught us phonics and how to count. They made us very happy because we learnt by doing it through rhymes, songs and dance so it did not feel like learning.

Kindergarten was so interesting to me because of the many centres such us book centre, shopping centre, construction centre, market centre in the classroom to play and practice.

My favourite thing about kindergarten was story sharing because I learnt moral lessons from the stories. I remember there was a story about the Spider, Kweku Ananse. Kweku Ananse was stealing from his friend’s farm and was greedy by claiming that the farm was for him. At the end, Kweku Ananse was disgraced. I’ve learnt from that story that it is not good to be greedy and take things that belong to others.

My teachers were kind, caring and friendly. Madam Antoinette made the days fun by sending us out to play Ampe and football. Graduation was organised and awards were given to children who did well and behaved well. I was given an award! When I was in kindergarten, I never absented myself from school because of how interesting the place was. I wanted to come to school even when I was not well.

Even though our teacher told us that my new primary school teachers would be lovely and not wicked and like children, I was sad because the kindergarten teachers loved me so much.”

To support more children like Marriama to get a play-based education, you can make a gift to support Sabre’s work here.