It’s fun for an adult to hear the old rhythm children shouting out loud either singing counting numbers……or singing seven days make a week.
But for Elizabeth Kakhongwe,fun is an understatement to see a pupil managing to say such words out loud.
Elizabeth is one of the care givers at Tepatepa Child Based Care Center-CBCC in Traditional Authority Selemani in Nkhotakota district and she says the very first years of learning for every child at CBCC are the most critical moments that have so far made her to be patient.
‘For a child to get used to the CBCC environment it is a process on its own, and when we reach such a moment the child being able to utter a vowel or memorizing any day of the week, it’s an outstanding achievement for me and they are such moments that lighten up my days of volunteering work here. She said.
Since 2013 Elizabeth has been a fervent influencer to early child hood education in her community more especially for marginalized families with kids between the ages of two to five.
She started volunteering as a care giver at the CBCC since its inception in 2013 and by then it was mandatory for parents to bring porridge or any meal for their kids at 9:00AM as a result children from marginalized families were less likely to learn in the very first years of their childhood. .
‘By then I was thirty three years old and now am growing quite old though we haven’t yet seen the dawn to the fruits of the charity work we do here but we are quite happy to reach the level where the CBCC is managing to provide free meals for these children. She narrated.
The free meals intervention coupled with meal kits, cooking utensils, toys and learning materials is a program being facilitated by UmunthuPlus targeting 3 CBCCs in Nkhotakota district.
Overall, the program has helped to improve enrolment rate in the targeted CBCCs and as well led to a reduction in absenteeism among children.
For Tepatepa CBCC, the enrolment rate has increased from 34 children to 113 children since the program was inducted in 2020, and hopefully, we will still be counting.
For many other children who have graduated from the CBCC from 2013 to date, they can’t forget caregivers like Elizabeth and others who contributed to their discovery of knowledge through books.
Despite the remarkable efforts made by care givers in these targeted CBCCs the only motivation remains to be passion and hope that someday their sweat will be repaid.
Tepatepa CBCC currently has a total of 8 care givers who solely work as volunteers and all of them haven’t ever attended an early childhood development training or care giver professional training.
More needs to be done to ensure that both these children have consistent access to free nutritious meals and also care givers are atleast rewarded as an incentive to motivate them to do their work.
Together lets join hands for equitable quality access to education in Malawi. Make a Donation in kind or monetary to support.
