Some women Religious selected from seven Congregations and Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) from ten beneficiary towns (Municipalities/Districts) recently attended a 3-day training workshop on Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Tamale.
Organised by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) – Ghana, it is expected to be implemented under a project dubbed, “Strengthening the Capacity of Women Religious (SCORE ECD III)”.
The beneficiary towns (Municipalities/Districts) are Damongo, Walewale, Saboba, Tatale, Chereponi, Tuna (Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District), Chamba (Nanumba North Municipality), Tinga (Bole District), Kongo (Nabdan District) and Fumbisi (Builsa South District).
The implementing Congregations comprise of Sisters of Mary Immaculate, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy, Sisters of Charity of St. Anne, Sisters of Immaculate Heart of Mary Mother of Christ and Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters.
The 3-year Project spanning from December 2021 to November 2024, has an overall goal of ensuring that children between the ages of 0-3 years in the targeted areas live in a nurturing environment by the end of 2024.
The project is funded by Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, a Philanthropic Trust based in the United States of America in partnership with CRS Ghana and implemented by the afore-named Congregations under the supervision of the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious in Ghana (CMSR-G).
Mr. Daniel Mumuni, Country Representative of CRS-Ghana, Dr. Selamawit Tadesse, Senior ECD Technical Advisor at CRS Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, Sr. Pauline Silver Acayo, Coordinator of SCORE ECD Projects in charge of Kenya, Malawi, Zambia and Ghana and Sr. Wilhelmina Uhai Tunu, Coordinator of SCORE ECD Projects, ACWECA, who were the Resource Persons, and Sr. Theodora Adzayawo, SMMC, Executive Secretary of CMSR-G, among other dignitaries, were present at the opening ceremony.
In a brief welcome address, Sr. Juliana Lamisi Akayeti, SMI, the SCORE-ECD III Manager, expressed delight that the project has now been extended to Ghana from Kenya, Malawi and Zambia.
She called on participants to actively participate in the training in order to acquire the needed skills to bring up intelligent youth for the development of Ghana’s economy.
Under the project, participants’ technical capacity to deliver high-quality and holistic ECD services to the most vulnerable families would be enhanced through nurturing care and family strengthening services while ensuring that the implementing Congregations have functional community-facility referral systems to facilitate timely access to services and also offer opportunities for networking and peer learning among the Congregations.
Participants were taken through the overview of the project and other relevant topics such as why SCORE ECD focuses on the 0-3 age group, importance of play and communication in ECD, components of responsive caregiving, SCORE ECD Intervention Framework for holistic ECD, care group model used in SCORE ECD III, Nurturing Care Framework, quality assurance and monitoring, among others.
Through the training, participants gained new knowledge, skills, and attitude in how children develop, learn and thrive and what caregivers need to practice for their children to thrive in a playful nurturing environment especially focusing on maternal mental health, children’s development in health, nutrition, safety and security, responsive care and early learning, and it is envisioned that the SCORE ECD III will become a model for quality community-based ECD services in Ghana.
In a brief closing remarks, Sr. Adzayawo urged participants to apply the knowledge they have acquired for the benefit of the people in their respective communities, especially children within the scope of the project.
She thanked the Resource Persons for their passion to ensure that the SCORE ECD III is successfully implemented in Ghana, expressing optimism that this would open avenues for future projects.
Speaking in an interview about how they would use the knowledge acquired to benefit the people in their localities, Sr. Stephany Ayomah, SMI, from Chamba, said she is now in a better place to educate mothers on how to take care of their babies, improve on their hygiene, live and take good care of their families as regards their physical, social, spiritual and emotional development. She hoped mothers as stakeholders, will cooperate with her team to ensure the success of the project.
Sr. Paschalina Gyereh, SSpS, from Saboba, said she is also better placed to educate expectant and lactation mothers to take good care of the children, most especially the babies in their womb. She was hopeful that any teething challenges that may arise will not adversely impact the project.
