World Vision Malawi has asked parents in Chitipa District to create a conducive environment in their homes for children to grow into productive citizens.

World Vision Malawi Kameme Area Programme development facilitator Richard Mdulamizu, whose organisation is supporting 43 community-based childcare centres (CBCCs), said this on Friday at the end of a five-day training for parents.

He said: “The training focused on two out of 12 government’s early childhood development [ECD]  modules aimed at imparting skills to parents on child development.

Parents demonstrate how children can play skipping game

“It also tackled how to utilise locally available resources to create playing and learning materials to keep the children busy at home after they knock off from their centres.”

Mdulamizu said they also trained seven primary school teachers to enhance transition and coordination between caregivers and primary school teachers to lessen the assessment burden that primary school teachers have with children from ECDs.

A parent from Navitengo I CBCC, Rhoda Kalagho said the training was an eye-opener.

She said through the training, she learned to make footballs, dolls and other playing materials to keep her children busy at home.

“I am going home with skills that will enrich my children in physical, emotional and cognitive areas,” said Kalagho.

Navitengo 5 CBCC chairperson Funsani Mbukwa said after the training his role will be to monitor parents to see if they will implement the action plan devised after the training.

“The essence of the training is to ensure that children are groomed physically, cognitively, socially, emotionally and spiritually. So, as parents, it is our role to play a leading role on top of what ECD caregivers do in CBCCs,” he said.

The facilitator Michael Jester Chipokosa said the training sought to empower parents to use locally available resources to create materials that are available in CBCCs to internalise the learning process.

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