One day at Sahwa

 

Last Monday meeting was held at the office in Sahwa nursery school. Walking through the school yard, planning improvements like reading spots for  the library and a small vegetable garden. The doors to the toilets will be fixed by NIHEP to improve the feeling of safety for the girls in particular.

Children were reaching out for NIHEP staff Getu and Amalath to show their newly received exam results throughout the day. 

One grandmother visited  to talk to Kajuna and Gethu. She takes care of her orphaned 10 year old grandson and she was showing concern about the boy as he is not attending school but rather roaming in the streets with his school bag. Later Kajuna talked to the boy, not lecturing, but trying to get his thoughts and telling why going to schhol can be an advantage. 

After this day, once again, I am so happy for the work NIHEP is doing as I also note the importance of the attention they give both to the children and the caregivers.

In the picture Amalath with one of the supported girls in Sahwa Primary.                                                                                                                                                            

In the pictures planning of the school yard  and beneath Amalath and Gethu doing follow up one of the boys supported.

/Lena Johansson, Mwembe

Another chance

This is, lets call her Jessica, who is passing by the office attending a tailoring course in town. NIHEP supports her with fee, material and transport. She did not manage to join Secondary school and this is a great opportunity for her.

Also, she loves football and will now be organizing football sessions coming Saturday!
Football and netball are excellent activities promoting the girls' self confidence, courage and communication skills. A brand new football has been donated and from now the game is on again!

Problems and solutions

Every week starts with Monday meeting in the office going through current matters and planning for the coming work week. It is important to gather at least once a week to discuss, to brainstorm and to develop solutions.

Updates from the meeting 12th of November with raised problems and suggested solutions:

·       The Tusome program is continuing but with to high absence rate. Field officer Gethu have met teachers and social workers involved and the way forward is to meet parents to the children with high absence in the program in order to find out why and what can be done. Nine parents came to the first meeting which was more than expected.

ð  Meetings with the parents, followed up by meetings together with the children and home visits when needed. Background and their thoughts on the children and education are gathered and simultaneously discussions with the parents are held.

·         The caregivers need to be strengthened in their parent role

ð  For that a pilot group is collected of 10-11 parents where awareness is raised on good parenting and talks on children’s need and one parent will be responsible and gatherer of the group.

ð  The parents should be provided with literacy skills and to raise their confidence and encourage them to support their children to education and funding for raised for the matter.

• The para-social workers and NIHEP have had discussions of important matters but many of them are still unclear about their role and are not always reporting cases of abuse and maltreatment. Cases of malnutrition have been discovered by NIHEP.

ð  Additional training will be held about the importance of reporting and the role of the para-social worker.

Getu in the Sahwa nursery school yard 

A library in Sahwa Nursery school is organized and planned to be opened by the end of November. Looking forward to update this page with pictures from the opening. Stay tuned!