Child from SOS CV Lilongwe (Malawi)…
Graduating from one educational phase to another is always an important stage in life and none the less so for the young students who graduated from SOS Kindergarten Lilongwe at the end of 2008.
- Lisa
-
Child from SOS CV Lilongwe (Malawi)
Graduating from one educational phase to another is always an important stage in life and none the less so for the young students who graduated from SOS Kindergarten Lilongwe at the end of 2008.
Kindergarten graduates face the future with confidence
Graduating from one educational phase to another is always an important stage in life and none the less so for the young students who graduated from SOS Kindergarten Lilongwe at the end of 2008.
The young scholars, most of who were five years old, took the opportunity to look to the future with confidence. In front of an audience of parents, children took the lead and performed a nativity play.
The play was conducted in English, which is the mother tongue of most of the children who attend the nursery in Lilongwe and remembered to speak loudly and clearly.
Suitably dressed, the youngsters took on the traditional roles of Mary, Joseph, wise men, shepherds, angels and even baby Jesus himself.
Various emotions could be seen on the young actor's faces - pride, confidence, bashfulness; along with a certain pensiveness about what the future might hold.
Fifty six children moved on to primary school and this year all of them moved to the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Primary School which is just across the road from the kindergarten. The SOS Hermann Gmeiner School Lilongwe is considered to be one of, if not the best, primary school in Lilongwe. The entry class is divided into two groups with the more academically minded children in one group and those who are assessed to be more practically minded in another group. However, as a child progresses through school they may be moved from one group to another depending on their needs.
In order to graduate, each child is assessed by a group of teachers to check that they have met the relevant milestones and are ready to take on the challenges of primary education. The group includes a teacher who is specially trained in the identification of special needs. Should any child need some form of remedial education, this is routinely picked up at this point and special arrangements can be made to ensure that the rest of the child's education is not compromised.
The SOS primary School has facilities for various special needs teachers and appropriate facilities, from those children who simply require a little more time to grasp concepts, to those with physical disabilities such as limited sight or hearing. At the moment, approximately ten per cent of the school enrolment attend some form of special education class at least once a week.
According to Annie Kaitano, the kindergarten principle, "parents commend the atmosphere at the kindergarten for being warm and encouraging. They invited the educators to keep this up for the new children entering the kindergarten so that they will also do as well as the outgoing graduates. After the event, many of the parents told me that they thought our school was one of the best in Lilongwe!"
- Mary
-
Local market in San Vicente, El Salvador
Latin America: Strengthening families to prevent child abandonment
In Latin America and the Caribbean, 83 million boys and girls between the ages of 0 and 12 live in poverty (UNICEF, 2005). Poverty threatens the lives of children in every way; it makes them vulnerable to abuse, mistreatment, violence and discrimination, it reinforces social, financial and gender-related differences, and it limits the capacity of families and communities to care for their children.
Poverty in childhood is a decisive factor in the generational cycle of poverty; poor children become poor parents who raise their own children in poverty. To break this vicious circle, we believe reduction of poverty must start with the children, and only with support can families ensure that their children will survive and make progress in life.
Latin America and the strengthening of families In Latin America, the main risk factor for child abandonment and vulnerability is poverty, because it denies children access to goods and services essential to their normal growth and development, and it also denies them opportunities in life.
The family strengthening programmes in Latin America are aimed at protecting and facilitating access to initial health-care, nutrition and education to children under the age of six, through community management, while their families develop the skills to respond to their children's needs.
The children are cared for on a daily basis in community homes and centres, and the families are the "owners" of these homes or centres. In other words, the families are responsible for administering resources and for controlling the quality of care which is being given to their children, as well as for keeping track of the educational progress and improvements in the lives of the families.
The daily care of children is carried out by women from the families participating in the programmes, and they are trained and supervised by experts of SOS Children's Villages.
The task of strengthening families focuses on supporting women; the mothers of the children directly benefit from the programmes. It has been proven throughout the world that investing in women results in an improvement of the living conditions of their children.
In order to help women become self-sufficient, support is given to them in the areas of personal development, literacy, information on protection from gender violence, sexual and reproductive health education and, above all, training and integration into the labour market (skills for work, job searches, micro businesses and micro loans, etc).
The support of families focuses on attaining more and better care and protection of their children, and the development of "family projects" centres on improving their living conditions.
On the local community level there are two focal points: establishing community structures, made up of families participating in the programmes who manage the community homes and centres, and the establishing or strengthening of institutional networks for defending children's rights.
Increased income achieved by SOS Children's Villages Ecuador
SOS Children's Villages Ecuador is developing a way of increasing womens income by offering them training. The strategy is simple and effective and consists of increasing their knowledge/skills in their existing jobs. For a period of 17 months, one session a month was offered to train the women in cleaning services, informal sales, and child care (babysitting).
Aside from technical training, a job search was carried out in order to assist the women in finding jobs with fair pay. The women's performance was then evaluated together with the employers, and the trained women were offered counselling which enabled them to defend their labour rights.
The results were impressive; their income increased by 64.19% in the three training groups. The biggest increase, of 71.84%, was achieved by the group of informal saleswomen. There was an increase of 58.19% in the group of babysitters, and the group of cleaning ladies saw an increase of 57.8%. (Source: SOS Children's Villages Ecuador, 2005).
SOS Children's Villages El Salvador: focus on self-management
SOS Children's Villages El Salvador has recently initiated community programmes which focus on community self-management. The first time they contact the communities, experts from SOS Children's Villages inform the potential participants that SOS Children's Villages will provide them with professional advice based on their wide experience in child development, but that they have to manage all resources themselves.
The families who are ready to participate, all of which are highly vulnerable, start out by organising themselves into groups and receiving training. A family committee is created and they learn to manage local resources.
In March 2005 the first community home was inaugurated. The participating families provided all the equipment and carried out the necessary infrastructural improvements. SOS Children's Villages only offered advice.
At present there are seven community homes which care for 130 children under the age of 6. All of these homes have been brought about with the same focus on community self-management.
The greatest success results from the fact that the participating families, which are organised into a committee, are the owners of their programme, and SOS Children's Villages is just a partner. This prevents institutionalisation of the programme, reduces dependency and significantly contributes to the goal of achieving sustainable family strengthening programmes within the community.
The future of family strengthening programmes in Latin America
In 2008, we will be offering assistance to 30,000 new children through all the programmes in Latin America, but success is measured according to the number of strengthened families who can secure a life without violence for their children, allowing them to enjoy basic human rights and to have access to essential services, and in this way offering them a better life in the present and a future full of opportunities.
Patricia Vargas-Sagot Regional Office for Central America, Mexico and The Caribbean
Share: