Jonathan Bonongwe, The project has registered success stories in the district
Government has rolled out Investing in Early Years [IEY] project targeting children of 60 months and below in 13 districts of the country including Dowa.
The project is being implemented in Rumphi, Likoma, Machinga, Mangochi, Neno, Mwanza, Mchinji, Ntcheu,Chikwawa,Zomba, Chiladzulu, Dowa and Thyolo with the overall objective of improving coverage and utilization of early childhood development services with focuss on nutrition, stimulation and early learning from conception to 59 months.
Giving updates of the project to the Dowa District executive committee [Dec] at a meeting held at the boma, District Social Welfare Officer for Dowa Jonathan Bonongwe, said about 13,000 children from Community Based Child Centres [CBCC] will benefit from the project in the district.
Bonongwe said Dowa is implementing component 2 of the project [Early Learning] in all the seven traditional authorities of the district; Msakambewa, Chiwere, Mkukula, Mponela, Chakhaza, Dzoole and Kayembe with a total of 15 model Early Childhood Development [ECD] centres targeted and 75 satellites being covered.
He said so far, the project has done Grievance Redress Mechanisms quarterly meetings, CBCC supervision in 153 centres, joint project supervision, consultative meetings with elected members and sector heads on Socio-Economic Profile [SEP] development.
The officer said the project has registered success stories such as community ownership of the project, increased enrolment of children to over 13,000, increased service provision in CBCCs and increased community knowledge on Early Childhood Development [ECD].
However, Bonongwe said the project is being hampered with some of the challenges; need for more caregivers training for quality service provision and increased motivation to volunteer caregivers, among others.
…..’’Besides these challenges, the project is being implemented in the interest of the communities as evidenced by community ownership, the community is able to take action,’’….he said.
Investing in Early Years [IEY] project is being implemented in 13 districts of the country including Dowa with financial support from the World Bank.
