42 villages in 6 communities in the Sikasso region in the south of Mali are benefitting from the project.
Promoting early childhood development in rural Mali
In the absence of preschool infrastructure in rural communities in Sikasso, Mali, the project strengthens the communities’ own resources to promote the early childhood development of preschool girls and boys and thus facilitates their entry into school as well as their success at school.
In this project, we deliberately refrain from building new preschool facilities, which are costly to operate. Instead, we give priority to promoting early childhood development directly in the home or village. For this purpose, we organise parent education courses and informal neighbourhood playgroups in private homes or outdoors, thus fostering children’s development and social skills through play.
All activities are carried out by volunteers who are specifically trained by us. Around one year into the project, the demand among parents and children for our activities is overwhelming. Having seen changes in their children’s behaviour, parents who were hesitant at first have now realised how important early childhood education activities are.
2711 children are being supported in their early childhood development at neighbourhood playgroups and at home.
Happy reading
Playgroup in Zaradougou, Sikasso, Mali
Background
Education not only takes place within the school building. Parents and village communities are at least as important in their role as educational actors, especially during early childhood. This is the basis for our project.
Sustainability through self-responsibility at community level
Our project deliberately takes a cost-efficient approach, which even enables poorer rural communities to introduce preschool activities and to operate them autonomously in the long term.
The project has been deliberately designed to be cost-efficient, allowing smaller and low-resource villages to launch preschool activities and operate them in the long term. Playgroups run without any substantial fixed costs; playgroup teachers work on a voluntary basis and in certain cases are paid in kind by the communities themselves. The activities take place outdoors under a tree or in private homes. Since the playgroups do not have many materials at their disposal, playgroup teachers are encouraged to make teaching and play material from locally available resources. All of this allows the villages to continue with these activities even after the project ends. Due to the great demand, additional playgroups have already been formed in many villages.
The project is very important for us here in Kakouna. Not only has it allowed us, the parents, to become better at teaching our children to read and do arithmetic at home, but it has also created a space where parents and children can grow closer.
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