Mzimba caregivers drilled in childhood education

St John of God Hospitaller Services in partnership with Save the Children Malawi has trained caregivers in Mzimba District to bridge the gap in the provision of quality early childhood development (ECD) education.

Speaking at the end of a training last week, Mzimba district social welfare officer Jim Wotchi said they needed K14 million to conduct a 14-day training for caregivers, but were only allocated K428 000 to support their social welfare programmes in this year’s budget.

“Fortunately, the two organisations have trained 360 caregivers out of the 895 we have in the district during the first phase of their project,” he said.

St John of God chief executive officer Charles Masulani said the project also focuses on inclusive early childhood education to promote equal right, to education for children with special needs.

“It is important to start talking about inclusivity at early childhood because development experts say there are huge potentials if you start working with children at a tender age,” he said.

Beatrice Gausi, a caregiver, said the training equipped her with various skills, including how to care for special needs children.

Mzimba has 920 ECD centres and the two institutions are working in 143 with 24 000 learners.

The two institutions are implementing an Inclusive Early Childhood Education Care and Development in Malawi project in the district.