In Chiconelane, Chaimite, Malehice, Maivene and Bairro 25 de Junho, five communities located in the District of Chibuto, 25 educators and 8 members of the Community Management Council were trained.
Between June 22 and July 2, AIDGLOBAL promoted a Parental Education Workshop in five communities, located in the District of Chibuto, Mozambique, within the scope of the project "Educadores em Movimento - Uma Educação Itinerante para a Primeira Infância" (Educators in Motion – An Itinerant Education for Early Childhood). Training participants on the importance of the integral development of children in early childhood, in areas such as health and psychology, for example, was one of the goals of the initiative.
Over three sessions, children's development was reflected in matters such as citizenship, children's rights and duties, health and nutrition, without forgetting the importance that the latter represents for mothers, particularly during pregnancy.
The space for sharing experiences and opinions was a constant in the various training moments, creating an atmosphere composed of different stories that added to their similarities and, above all, their differences.
Castigo Tchume, Manager of the AIDGLOBAL Delegation in Mozambique, underlines the importance of empowering communities and raising awareness of the issues surrounding Early Childhood Education and makes a positive assessment of the sessions, which he acknowledges to have been “interactive” and conducive to the creation of a “productive discussion environment in which the interveners expressed themselves informed and sensitive to the issues addressed”.
The theoretical dimension that integrated the programmatic structure of the first sessions created the bases for the practical component that followed and within which simulations were carried out to raise the awareness of participants in matters such as child health and nutrition, which aimed to prepare the educators for concrete activities to be developed, also, in a family context.
Data from 2012, from the Ministry of Education, show that, “in Mozambique, 4% of children under 5 years of age attend Pre-School Education (EPE)”. There is a low perception of parents and the community about the importance of EPE, a high level of female illiteracy and insufficient Health and Citizenship promotion initiatives aimed at preschool-age children.
The weak promotion and consequent adherence to pre-school education, in Mozambique, can compromise the protection and promotion of children's rights, as is the case of the right to education, as expressed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and in the Law On the Promotion and Protection of Children's Rights (Law No. 7/2008, of 9 July).
“Educadores em Movimento – uma Educação Itinerante para a Primeira Infância” (Educators in Motion – An Itinerant Education for Early Childhood) is a project that creates links between the Primary School and the Itinerant Childhood Education services of 5 rural communities in the District of Chibuto, Gaza Province. It is financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, co-financed by Camões – Institute for Cooperation and Language I.P. and implemented by a consortium constituted by AIDGLOBAL, project manager, by the Vocational and Residential Center of Chibuto (CVRC), partner in the definition of social and educational strategies and in hosting the various initiatives, by the Instituto Politécnico de Leiria (IPL), its coordinator scientific-pedagogical, by the Center for International Studies of the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL)(CEI-IUL), coordinator of the anthropological component, by the District Service for Youth, Education and Technology of Chibuto (SDJET) and the District Service for Health, Women and Social Action (SDSMAS) – entities that guarantee the articulation of the project with public policies.
