By Olimatou Coker
Child Fund Gambia has launched a 9 months project known as ‘parenting practice for early childhood development for mentors and facilitators’ in MansaKonko, LRR.
The project which will be implemented in the LRR, NBR, and CRR is funded by Unicef and it is expected to improve the knowledge, attitude, and practices of 200 young couples on child care and development, nurturing practice, and parenting skills.
It will also support the construction of 9 early childhood development playgrounds in across the targeted regions to facilitate learning through play.
Speaking at the launching which also coincided with a three-day capacity building on training on parenting and child care, country director Musukuta Komma said, Child Fund, is a children development organization that believes and invests a lot in the development of the children for a better future.
“With that concept Child Fund knows the need for the protection of the children who are under the age of five, and the primary care to be given by caregivers. This is a way of complementing the efforts of the government to ensure that some of the issues affecting children under five (5), especially things around FGM are addressed. One of the best approaches in doing so is through improving the knowledge of the caregivers,” she said.
Madam Komma disclosed that in partnership with its international partners Child Fund has developed a program delivery model that will deliver sessions to caregivers and parents for a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 18 months to avail them of all rights and necessities for the developmental needs of the children.
Child Fund programs and sponsorship director Nfamara Dabo said, the organisation is implementing a widespread approach and program models geared to support children and ensure they are healthy and secured.
This parenting practice for early childhood development is targeted in three regions. In each of these regions Child Fund targets quite a number of couples, in LRR we are targeting sixty couples, in CRR we are targeting 70 couples and in North Bank Region 70 couples, these are the parents that we are going to work with for the next 6 months to have this parenting session immediately after this training.
