By Memory Chatonda
Malawi Council for the Handicapped (MACOHA) has trained 60 caregivers from Phalombe, Chiradzulu and Mangochi on Early Childhood Development (ECD) skills to enable them manage children with disabilities in their respective Community Based Childhood Care centres.
Speaking in an interview with Malawi News Agency on Tuesday, MACOHA Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) Project Coordinator, Mercy Mpunga, observed that currently, a lot of children with disability are denied access to ECD services due to inadequate skills by caregivers to manage such children.
“As a result, these children are sent back home where some of the parents resort to locking them indoors.
“In addition, these children also face attitudinal, institutional, economic and physical barriers in accessing ECDE services in their communities, hence do not fully enjoy their rights to play and education,” she said.
In an interview, MACOHA Chief Executive Officer, Georgina Navicha said the training was deemed to be an enabling tool towards promoting inclusive education in Malawi.
She said the training focused on disabilities, its causes and prevention, identification and management of children with disabilities in their institutions and their rights.
“The training was designed to sharpen the skills and competencies of caregivers for them to effectively manage children with disabilities so that they can actively participate in Early Childhood Development Education services within their communities,” she said.
One of the participants, Grace Buleya, expressed gratitude to MACOHA for the training. She pledged to put the knowledge gained into practice.
“Many times, we have been sending back home children with different forms of disabilities because they appeared to be a burden to us.
“However, this training has equipped us with different ways we can use to manage such children so that they can enjoy their right to play and education just like others.
“We, therefore, thank MACOHA for this orientation,” she said.
ECDE aims at promoting holistic development of a child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs in order to build a solid and broad foundation for lifelong learning and well-being.
Currently, Malawi has 37,000 caregivers out of which, 17,000 are well equipped with ECD activities, according to Association of Early Childhood Development in Malawi Executive Director, Archie Malisita.
The training, which ran for four days, was conducted with financial support from Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa.
