Early Childhood Development Community Mobilisation: A Training Manual

Abstract

Introduction 1. Need for Community Mobilization There is need to carry out vigorous community mobilization in the area of early childhood development (ECD) because there is still little appreciation of the crucial importance of early childhood years in Uganda. There is an attitude that ECD/Pre primary education is either a waste of time or an issue for the high income and affluent families. Before you can build a house, it is necessary to lay foundation stones to support the entire structure. Likewise, before a child enters Primary school, a similar foundation must be laid. ECD is therefore fundamental to Human Resource Development as the future learning of a child during its years of schooling depends to a great degree upon the foundation stones laid during the early years. 2. What is community Mobilization Community Mobilization can be referred to as a process of organizing people, helping them agree to do an activity and satisfactorily completing the activity together. Therefore community mobilization in ECD means organizing the community and parents in particular, helping them agree to do an ECD activity together, and completing it satisfactorily for the proper care and development of their children. 3. Goals and objectives of community mobilization The community mobilization in ECD has two goals: a) To educate politicians, policy makers, programmers, education officials, civic leaders at all levels and parents on the importance of ECD. b) To stimulate communities to start ECD interventions/programmes which are appropriate to the children's age. More specific objectives include: i) Empower and support families and communities to take better care of their children. ii) Increase collaboration between stakeholders. iii) Educate parents and other caregivers in better childcare iv) Involve parents and community leaders in recognizing the benefits of ECD. v) Ensure the engagement and participation of civil society in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of ECD programme/initiatives. vi) Develop responsive, participatory and accountable systems of ECD governance and management. vii) Implement integrated strategies for ECD which recognize the need for changes in attitudes, values and practices. 4. How to use this manual a) Layout of the sessions Look at the table of contents so that you are familiar with the topics to be covered and in what sequence. b) Format for the sessions Each session has a background, objectives, time frame, content outline, suggested materials, preparation before the session, methods, and procedure and session notes. Let us look at each of these in details. i) Background This gives you an overview about the topic and gives the rationale for covering this topic. ii) Objectives These explain the specific early childhood knowledge; skills, information or actions participants will come away with. iii) Time Frame Suggested time is provided. However as in all good training be flexible in speeding up activities where participants have experience with the topic or taking more time when discussions, role plays or group work become exciting or fruitful. iv) Content outline This gives you the scope of coverage. The topics are so wide that everything cannot be covered in this training so the content outline guides you on what content to cover. v) Materials to be used Each session has suggested materials. However feel free to use any other materials you feel will be useful and beneficial to the trainees. vi) Preparation before the session This gives you a hint on what preparation you need to do before you start the session. It helps you not to forget important materials you will use during the session and information that you need prior to conducting the session. vii) Methods This outlines suggested methods you will use, however feel free to be creative and use other methods if you feel they will enable participants learn better. It is important that methods used are participatory. viii) Procedure The procedure gives you details of the content to be covered and the activities for each content area step by step. ix) Session Notes These are given at the end of each session. They are readings which provide detailed information about the topic to be covered. c) General preparation before the sessions ii) Write the background, objectives and content outline on a flip chart before each session starts. iii) Make sure all the materials you will use in the training are available. iv) Read through the notes and internalize the content. Seek for more information from other books if you feel the information in the session notes is not detailed enough. d) Before the training starts ii) Make sure the room where the training is going to take place is well arranged. iii) Welcome participants and provide a register of attendance. iv) Provide administrative information such as arrangements for transport and meals and duration of the training. workshop ) Use an adult-centred approach i Unlike children, adults become increasingly self-directed rather than teacher-directed in a learning situation. They build upon their past rich experience as a resource and are concerned with real life problems and tasks and want to apply their learning to their situation. The training materials used in this manual reflect and respond to that situation. The sessions should be as practical and action-oriented as possible. ii) Workshop facilitation If possible a team training approach should be used to conduct the workshop. Training is often more fun and less stressful when more than one person conducts the training sessions. In order for co-facilitators to be properly prepared, they need to address the following issues before the workshop begins: a) Determine the team a few weeks in advance of the workshop so that there can be an exchange of ideas and plans before the workshop begins. b) Determine who is responsible for what part of the training. c) Try to build a team. d) Facilitators should be supportive of their colleagues and work together to build a strong team spirit. f) Running the workshop All workshops should begin with: i) Introduction of participants and facilitators. Self introduction is preferred. ii) Let participants state their expectations and fears. iii) Facilitator gives the general objectives of the workshop. iv) Establish ground rules for the workshop. v) Appoint a time keeper and someone in charge of walfare. vi) Use energy risers when people have been sitting for too long. vii) At the end of the day, ask participants what they learned that day which they can use later. viii) Conduct an evaluation at end of the workshop.