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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 is funded by Comic Relief and is 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.
KANCO
KANCO is a national membership network of NGOs/CBOs and religious organisations involved in or having an interest in HIV/AIDS and STI activities in Kenya. It was established in 1990 by a group of major NGOs that were implementing projects related to HIV/AIDS. Child-to-Child activities began in October, 2000 through the Child Centred Approaches to HIV/AIDS (CCATH) project and the Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI) in August 2003. Child-to-Child activities are introduced through trainings, sporting activities, CtC clubs in and out of schools and through CSOs that work with children. Over 100 schools are involved with CtC activities and numbers are growing. The focus of Child-to-Child activities is HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support. Read more
ACE AFRICA
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
Leonard Cheshire
Leonard Cheshire Disability use Child-to-Child within their inclusive education programmes, initially piloting in the Rachuonyo District of Kenya the project focuses on sensitising the school community to the various causes of disability. This takes place through Child-to-Child clubs. The project was scaled up in the Nyanza Province and now includes 10 primary schools, 500 children and youth are involved through the Child-to-Child clubs. The programme also covers prevention of disability and disabled people’s rights. Read more
Note 1
Child-to-Child Kisumu
The school-based Child-to-Child programme in Kisumu was started in July 2001 by Africa Now. In the beginning, a needs assessment was conducted with support from the Ministry of Education (MoE) of Kisumu to identify schools in greatest need of the programme and 12 schools were selected. Workshops were then held to train teachers and administrators in the Child-to-Child approach, teaching and learning methods and community participation. A CtC Coordinators Committee was also established to coordinate and monitor the programme in the participating schools. Health clubs involving children were established in all schools and activities included health and hygiene assessments, health festivals, creating leaky tins for washing hands, and other activities based on the CtC readers and Activity Sheets. For more information about this programme download the report at Water for People website
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. For more information, e-mail ctckenya@hessp.com
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 4
ITDG Practical Action
ITDG Practical Action is a charity registered in the United Kingdom working with poor communities to develop appropriate technologies in food production, agroprocessing, energy, transport, small enterprise development, shelter, small-scale mining and disaster mitigation. According to its website, CtC has been introduced in the organisation’s activities in Kitale. For more information please visit the ITDG website
Note 5
Gallamoro Network
CtC activities started after an introductory training course held by KANCO and the CTC Trust in June, 2004. The CtC programme currently involves 128 children and activities have focused on environmental hygiene and HIV-AIDS. The Gallamoro Network is taking further steps to train the Regional Communication and Development Organisation, Pumwani Child Survival and Rehabilitation Centre and Foundation of Life Children Centre in the CtC approach, with the help of CtC Resource Books Parts 1 & 2.
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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