Tsala Yami Preschool started in 2004, with some 20 children, in a makeshift structure at the backyard of a retirement home for Mr and Mrs Chigudu, at Dema Growthpoint in Seke, rural Zimbabwe.

It is a project that was started as a response to the community need for ECD (Early Childhood Development) services and to keep a retired primary school headmaster and her teacher trained husband occupied.

The first and still the main funding partners to the project were/are families members working in Botswana and South Africa.

The name Tsala Yami was decided in 2006. It’s a Setswana phrase for “My Friend”. In July 2009 the preschool centre was registered with the Ministry of Education as an ECD centre (ECD/MASHEAST/8540).

In May 2013, Tsala Yami Trust was registered as a public charitable trust (Reg: MA0569/2013) to run Tsala Yami as an ECD centre, to invite other funding and development partners and to expand into more development programs for children, youth and the community.