By Clementine
Denga
Chitakatira Primary
School is in the Chitakatira community, located in the Mutare South District of
Manicaland. According to the 2012 census, the district has 81,928 inhabitants
in 19,321 households, hence the high enrolment at Chitakatira primary school
with 2048 children, 1012 being boys and 1036 girls. However, the work of Nhaka
Foundation focuses on children between 0 and 8 years of age and promotes safe
and clean ECCE institutions, child-friendly pedagogical models and teacher
training, linking this with nutrition programmes and hygiene education, access
to health care and psychosocial support. With this in mind the Chitakatira
primary school site consists of one block with 2 classrooms for the ECD. Having
a total of 342 learners in the ECD this gives a ratio of 1 classroom:171
students as compared to the standard of 1classroom: 28 students, so children
have limited space and resort to learning under the trees. The ECD curriculum
in Zimbabwe is very classroom oriented and at the same time aims to promote the
physical and cognitive development of the children. The aim is to use
child-friendly, playful and creative methods. Nhaka Foundation with the support
of BMZ and TDH has implemented a project to quality, holistic and lifelong
Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) for children between 0 and 8 years of
age at Chitakatira. A construction project for Chitakatira for one block that
consists of 2 classrooms is 80%complete. This block was built with the
intention to reduce the classroom to student ratio.
With regular health
checks and screening for children 0-8 years as one of the outcomes, support
from the Ministry of Health and Child Care will always be appreciated as they
assist with screening the children. This is done to help monitor the
children’s developmental status, detect malnutrition, developmental delays, and
physical and mental problems at an early stage and, if necessary, take
countermeasures to ensure the young children live a life full of possibilities.
These health screenings are done every month of each school term. So far, we
have done two health assessment activities for 741 children. The health
assessments are assisted by the Nhaka Foundation Monitoring and Evaluation
Assistant with the help of the Nurses.
In order to
improve the children’s nutritional condition and their physical and mental
performance, Nhaka Foundation is running a nutrition programme for children
between the ages of 4 and 8 at Chitakatira, the success of which is measured by
regular health screenings which have been mentioned above. In order to ensure a
clean, secure, balanced and regular meal for children a food preparation
workshop has been carried out in Chitakatira. The workshop was facilitated by
the Ward Nutrition Coordinator, Environment and Health Technician, and the
Nurse. Topics discussed included hygiene, food preparation and balanced meals
among others. Impact for this workshop can only be measured by the change in
the children’s nutritional status which will be measured by the health checks
and screenings to be conducted as the project progresses.
Training in
conflict prevention and resolution helps parents and caregivers to avoid stress
in families and education and to solve intra-family conflicts without the use of
physical and psychological violence. A two-day conflict prevention
and resolution workshop was conducted in Chitakatira with the presence of the
local leaders (village heads), school development committee and
community. As a result of the workshop the impact was fast felt as
those that were known not to get along are now working together for the
progress of the project.
Early childhood is
a period of enormous growth and development. Children develop more rapidly
during the period from birth to age 8 than at any other time in their lives,
shaped in large part by their experiences in the world. These early years of
development are critical for providing a firm foundation in cognitive,
language, and motor development, as well as social, emotional, regulatory, and
moral development. Nhaka Foundation in partnership with TDH and BMZ is putting
tremendous effort with the support of the community and local stakeholders to
enable children to have a life full of possibilities.
~ The End ~
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