Zimbabwe has roughly 2 million children under five, and how they are talked to, played with and read to in these earliest years shapes the rest of their lives. Yet most young children in Zimbabwe spend their formative years at home rather than in early learning settings, and pre-primary attendance remains low, particularly outside major urban areas. Caregivers, who are children's first teachers, often have little access to practical, evidence-based guidance on how to support early learning, language development and school readiness through everyday interactions.
When parents do seek information, they turn to family members, neighbours or unverified online sources. The advice is inconsistent, sometimes outdated, and rarely tailored to a child's age or stage. National health and ECD services do extraordinary work, but reach is constrained by distance, time between visits and the limits of what can be conveyed in a short consultation.
Rerai Umntwana was created to address this gap. Developed jointly by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health and Child Care and aligned with Zimbabwe's National Development Strategy 1 and ECD policy framework, it places trusted, evidence-based guidance directly into caregivers' hands in Shona, Ndebele and English. The aim is simple: every Zimbabwean child, urban or rural, should benefit from the responsive, playful, language-rich early years that the science of child development tells us matter most.
Rerai Umntwana is a free Android and iOS mobile application bringing together evidence-based content for parents and caregivers of children aged 0 to 6. Available in Shona, Ndebele and English, it is designed for everyday use in Zimbabwean homes, including in low-connectivity rural areas, and works fully offline once installed.
At the heart of the app is a library of 250+ interactive games and activities supporting early learning across four developmental domains: language and communication, cognitive, socio-emotional, and motor. Activities use everyday household items. A WHO-aligned developmental milestone tracker helps caregivers observe their child's progress and links each milestone to relevant play activities that build the next skill.
These early learning tools sit alongside 550+ evidence-based articles spanning the six domains of the Nurturing Care Framework, including health, nutrition, safety and caregiver wellbeing, recognising that early learning does not happen in isolation from a child's wider development. Content is personalised to the child's age and developmental stage, so caregivers receive timely, relevant guidance rather than having to search.
In practice, families use the programme in short, everyday moments: playing a simple game, responding to a child’s behaviour, or understanding how to support a new skill. By embedding learning into daily routines, Rerai Umntwana helps transform the home into a child’s first learning environment.
Rerai Umntwana was launched in February 2026 in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, and is being rolled out through Zimbabwe's national health and ECD service delivery systems. Spread is deliberately government-led: the Ministry owns the platform, sets content priorities, and promotes it through official channels alongside organic growth among parents.
In the early months, focus has been on integrating the app into existing service touchpoints. Health professionals and community workers introduce caregivers to the app during antenatal, postnatal and child health visits, and use it as a shared reference during consultations. Push notifications reach parents during nutrition campaigns, immunisation drives and at key parenting moments tied to a child's age.
In addition, complementary outreach is being built through community events, civil society organisations working with vulnerable families, and ECD practitioners who use the activities and milestone tracker in their work.
Over the next two to three years, the goal is to reach a meaningful share of caregivers of children aged 0 to 6 nationally, deepen integration with the Impilo digital health management system, and grow a strong local content pipeline so the app increasingly reflects Zimbabwean voices and cultural practices.
Together, this approach ensures that Rerai Umntwana is not a standalone tool, but part of a broader ecosystem supporting early childhood development and school readiness at scale.
Rerai Umntwana was developed in close consultation with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, civil society partners and Zimbabwean parents to ensure cultural and contextual relevance from the outset. Content has been adapted, not translated, into Shona and Ndebele alongside English, with examples, scenarios and visuals reflecting Zimbabwean homes, foods, play environments and family structures.
Offline functionality has been prioritised so the app remains useful in rural and low-connectivity communities. The visual identity, app name and core messaging draw on Shona and Ndebele linguistic and cultural meaning, positioning caregivers as the primary educators and nurturers of their children. New early learning content is continuously being added, with local ECD specialists reviewing activities to ensure they reflect Zimbabwean child-rearing practices and respond to gaps identified by parents themselves.
Continuous feedback from caregivers and service providers is being used to refine and strengthen the programme over time.
Getting started with Rerai Umntwana is simple and free. Here is how:
For parents and caregivers: Download the Rerai Umntwana app for free from the Google Play Store (Android) or the Apple App Store (iOS). Once downloaded, parents can create a profile for their child by entering their name, date of birth, and a few other details. The app will immediately begin offering parents age-tailored guidance, activities, and reminders relevant to their child's stage of development. The app works offline, so parents can access content even without an active internet connection after the initial download.
For pre-school teachers, health workers and other service providers: Rerai Umntwana has been designed to complement their work. Once service providers download the app, they can familiarise themselves with its content and tools, and begin recommending it to caregivers during home visits or clinic consultations. They can use the vaccination tracker and milestone tools together with families to enrich their interaction and encourage caregivers to continue engaging with the guidance between visits. Early childhood educators can use activities and games to enhance early learning activities.
There are no subscription fees, no advertising, and no collection of personal data, ensuring safe and equitable access for all families.
