New Uniforms!!

We looooooove new uniforms!!! We take pride in our colorful uniforms at Eco Moyo. They add joy to our already colorful school — and they feel very us.

Even better: the students choose the colors themselves.

Each class comes together to decide what they want. There are discussions and there are strong (read: loud) opinions. We would say it’s about 90% democratic :D

Having different colors for each class creates a real sense of belonging and identity for the class as a group. And because they choose themselves, we end up with combinations no one would have picked as adults. Which is exactly why we love it!

Hot pink and hot orange? Bold. Purple and neon green? Also bold. Light blue and dark blue? Very matching (Head teachers favourite).

From a distance, you always know an Eco Moyo class is coming.

The first few weeks of a new school year are slightly confusing. Everyone has moved up a grade. New classroom. New teacher. New uniforms. All the students suddenly look way too small for their new class (if you ask us).

We catch ourselves saying, “Erhm… which class are you in again?” quite often.

To make the uniforms, we hire two tailors, Sidi and Fatuma, from our village. It creates local jobs and supports our community. They measure every student and sew all the uniforms on site.

They also make uniforms for our Grade 7 Junior Secondary students as they start at their new schools.

Here are students who have started Mabirikani (gray and white) and Eza Moyo (beige and dark red) What also stands out at Eco Moyo, when it comes to uniforms, is that we don’t wear the classic uniform shoes.

We used to, but wearing hard plastic shoes in this heat is just not pleasant for anyone. And we want our students to feel happy and free at school.

So they wear their own choice of shoes — which we would say is about 98% sandals and slippers. Its much easier to kick them off to play football barefoot!

And the old uniforms? They are never wasted. They are worn at home, passed down to younger siblings and cousins. It is something we love seeing when we walk through the village — old Eco Moyo colors continuing their life outside the school gates.

We give the whole school new uniforms every two years, and this time it was from a fundraiser held by Linnea, that was volunteering with us back in September. A huge thanks to her for fundraising and a huge thanks to everyone who contributed! <3