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June 2011
Welcome
Welcome to the June edition of Connect.
Every 3-4 months Connect provides news and features on Child-to-Child activity, to inspire thought and action. If you find it useful, please forward to your colleagues and ask them to sign up.
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News from the Trust
Developing a new Child-to-Child early childhood development and life skills education programme in Sierra Leone
In January 2011, Tricia Young, the new Director of the Trust visited Sierra Leone to meet with the Trust’s partner Pikin-to-Pikin to develop a new early childhood development (ECD) project. If funding can be secured, the project will deliver a community based ECD programme in Sierra Leone using the Child-to-Child approach. The project will focus on preparing pre-school children - and possibly school-aged children who should be in school but are not - to enter Primary 1. The project strategy will involve pairing older, and already enrolled primary school aged children (Young Facilitators) with the pre-school children (Young Learners). The Young Facilitators (YF) will work systematically through a series of activities intended to develop the numeracy, literacy and social skills of the Young Learners (YL) so that they enter primary one prepared and complete basic education without dropping out.. The project will take place in one of the most remote and impoverished districts in Sierra Leone – Kailahun – which was where the 1994 war started and ended. Participants at the various community consultation events which took place during Tricia’s visit highlighted the vast array of challenges faced by girls in Kailahun – from teenage pregnancy, to sexual abuse – which impact negatively on their educational opportunities. In response to this, the project will also deliver life-skills education using the child-to-child approach to the older children, focusing on teenage pregnancy, child protection and HIV/AIDS. An application has been submitted to Comic Relief, the outcome of which will be known at the end of July. Watch this space....
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Getting Ready for School Project
Christiana Brown, Project Coordinator, and Gulzar Kanji, Child-to-Child Consultant on ECD, visited Yemen in January 2011 to review the progress and impact of the school readiness project since the initial training in May 2010. The visit was intended to provide technical support to the project implementers as they rolled out the Intervention, ‘Getting Schools Ready to receive Children’. This is an initiative intended to provide a conducive and child friendly school environment which promoted children’s learning.
Overall the visit was successful and highlighted several interesting outcomes emerging from the three participating districts. All three districts reported increased enrolment in the intervention schools (100% in some schools). The teacher training helped to equip teachers with participatory methods to work with children in the classroom and helped children to prepare well for classroom work. Participants felt that the intervention ensured that schools are better prepared to receive children now than before. Relationships between schools and families have also improved as a result of the project. Teachers are now better able to use child-centred methods and, as a result have become more innovative with increased skills in story-telling, puppetry and the use of local materials to make toys with children. Children are now learning through play. Parents have become more involved and knowledgeable about their children’s work.
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International training course hosted by Save the Children MENA in collaboration with the Child-to-Child Trust, London
In October 2010, the Child-to-Child Trust collaborated with Save the Children MENA who hosted an International Training Course in Lebanon on Child-to-Child approaches to children’s participation in health and education. The course was facilitated by Jumanah Zabaneh, Regional Programme Director of Save the Children, Sweden, MENA region and was well received by the participants who are development practitioners around the world. The participants have now taken the learning from the training back to their prospective countries and implementing the knowledge and skills acquired in their programmes.
International training course hosted by Institute for Educational Development, BRAC University (IED-BRACU) in collaboration with the Child-to-Child Trust, London
In July 2010 Dr. Shabnam Ahmed of Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development designed and conducted the course with support from Clare Keates, Interim Director, and Christiana Brown, Project Coordinator of Child-to-Child Trust London and Dr. Nishat Rahman of IED-BRACU.
The course "Child-to-Child (CTC) approaches to children's participation in education and development: A course for master trainers " was organized to support IED-BRACU who wished to build the capacity of their existing staff and participants from other partner organizations. The aim of the course was to enable participants to strengthen their knowledge, training and planning skills for children’s participation in education and development, based on Child-to-Child approaches. The course was designed for practitioners to learn about the theoretical aspects of Child- to- Child approaches and to translate them into practice. It also sought to help IED-BRACU to develop a pool of Child to Child practitioners who could play a lead role in promoting children's participation in health, education and development in schools in Bangladesh.
Participants learned about the core ideas underpinning the Child-to-Child approach, including: child rights and children’s participation; linkages between home and school/learning place; and inclusion of all children. They also learned about participatory and active methods of teaching a prioritized health topic and put these into practice by working with children during the school visits. Participants gained a lot from the visit as it meant that they could practice the Child-to-Child approach in a real classroom setting. Learning firsthand about the challenges of working in schools with limited resources provided additional insights and benefits.
Child-to-Child around the World
Save the Children is implementing the Regional Children’s Action for Participation in 60 communities in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia through June 2012. This is directly benefiting about 30,000 youth, aged 14-18, including internally displaced and refugee children/youth, children and youth in institutional care, those with disabilities and those who are victims of abuse and other child rights violations. This project supported by the European Union, aims to empower secondary school aged children to play a leading role in their own development and the development of their communities through meaningful participation locally, nationally and regionally.
Throughout the project, using Child-to-Child approach, 4500 young people of 60 schools, aged 14-18, will research, write and present reports about the child rights situation as they come to understand it for relevant government officials., They will be linked to national Parliamentarians and the Ministry of Education to present issues and their findings. To support youth interactions as well as showcase project activities, the project will develop a Child Participation Manual and facilitate in-country and transnational communication on child rights issues by developing a website as a key resource for continued idea-sharing on child participation. Youth-led national conferences will produce recommendations and suggestions on continued child participation and rights protection. Finally, a regional South Caucasus closing conference will be held in Tbilisi to summarize achievements and gaps, and plan the next steps for sustainability.
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