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Relevant background information
In August 1979 a national seminar on Child-to-Child was organised by the Basic Educational Resource Centre, Kenyatta University College (now Kenyatta University), an institution that has remained linked with the movement through its faculty of education. This seminar brought together representatives of Ministries of Health and Education as well as a number of NGOs. Since then a number of small programmes have existed in Kenya and many of these were later included in a Directory of Child-to-Child activities in Kenya produced by the Basic Education Resource Centre in 1995 and available at both KANCO and Child-to-Child, London.
There were also three large initiatives where Kenya was host to seminars and workshops, resulting in publications used internationally. They are:
1) a workshop on Health and Mathematics held in Nairobi in 1987 resulting in the source book Health into Mathematics by Gibbs and Mutunga (Published in 1991 and still in use).
2) a seminar held in Nyeri and supported by the Van Leer Foundation, in association with the Kenya Institute of Education, looking at experiences of Child-to-Child in early childhood education. This led to the publication in1989 of a Report and Resource book entitled Child-to-Child and the Growth and Development of Young Children.
3) participation in a four-country project looking at the development of Health Action Schools in association with facilitating colleges. Countries involved in the study were Kenya, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Uganda. The Report and Resource book, entitled Child-to-Child Approaches in Colleges and Schools in Africa, was published by the Child-to-Child Trust in 1992.
More recently, Child-to-Child approaches have been introduced in the Child-Centred Approaches to HIV-AIDS programme that was funded by Comic Relief and was coordinated by a group of partners in Kenya, Uganda and the UK; including KANCO and the Child-to-Child Trust. Because Child-to-Child approaches have been so widely used in Kenya it will be difficult to estimate their current extent. One interesting fact is the large number of the Child-to-Child readers purchased yearly for use in Kenyan schools: 10,500 in 2003/2004.
ACE AFRICA (updated information available in current activities)
Child-to-Child activities began in 2004 and are organised and implemented by ACE AFRICA in conjunction with the Ministry of Education to benefit health centres and schools in the community. To date, teachers in 49 primary schools in the Bungoma district have benefited from the programme, approximately 1,500 children are involved in CtC clubs and 946 children have attended HIV guidance in schools. Read more
Note 2
Child-to-Child Kenya
Child-to-Child activities began in Kenya back in the 1980s, but the Child-to-Child
Project-Kenya was initiated in May 1997. Activities are organised through
community-based NGOs and CBOs who then work through primary schools. The overall aim of the programme is to enable, encourage and support children's participation in health education and through this, to stimulate the development of themselves, other children, and their families and communities. This is achieved through participatory methods and processes, especially the Child-to-Child approach. Child-to-Child is introduced through the training of adult facilitators who then introduce the activities across the school curriculum and through school-based CtC clubs. Furthermore, active learning methods and the six-step approach are widely used to achieve this level of children’s participation.
Note 3
Child-to-Child Network of Eastern and Southern Africa
The Child-to-Child Network markets and sells the idea of children's participation to individuals and organisations with community-based interventions, and strives to win their commitment for inclusion of children's activities in their interventions. We train target teachers (called adult catalysts) who are given support in the CtC approach and its school-community implementation. The teachers train other school staff and then jointly run a CtC club which is supported by a CPC (Children's Participation Committee – this includes a supporting NGO/CBO).
Note 6
Mariakani Primary School
At Mariakani Primary School, there are 65 members belonging to a school-wide Child-to-Child club. The club’s activities include school cleanliness campaigns and activities to raise awareness about road safety and HIV-AIDS. Three teachers are responsible for the Child-to-Child club and report that children in the CtC clubs are spreading health messages to other children, thereby increasing the impact of Child-to-Child activities in and around the school. One of the trained CtC teachers has observed that since the CtC programme started, “… it is easier to discuss health issues with children now than it was before.”
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