A novel experience in early childhood development

Since the change in power in 2000, integrated early childhood development has been a national policy priority. This has crystallized into a national programme for the “Case des Tout-Petits”.

Presentation | General Objective | The Programs | Staff | Value Added | Partnership Framework | Management

Presentation

The “Case des Tout-Petits” (CTP) is a community-based structure for the development of children in the early (0-6) years. It began in 2000 on a personal initiative of His Excellency Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal.
The “Case des Tout-Petits” is made up of:

• Two hexagonal buildings, one of them a workshop where children learn; and the other a room where mothers get information and where parents and the community receive education and training;
• A kitchen for preparing meals for the children;
• A unit for providing healthcare services to the children;
• A staff room;
• A food store;
• Toilets, as well as a courtyard for outdoor activities and micro-projects to help finance the activities of the “Case des Tout-Petits”;
• The diagonal iron bar, extending past the top of the roof, which symbolizes entrenchment in our culture. The edge of the iron bar above the roof symbolizes the children’s openness of spirit to learn from other cultures.

General Objective

To ensure that all Senegalese children, from the day they are born to the age of six, and particularly those who are underprivileged, have access to adequate and integrated services provided in a participatory manner to ensure that the needs of each one of them (livelihood, development, protection, harmonious social integration and self-fulfilment) are addressed in a suitable environment.

Dispositif

Principes Directeurs
- Alternance : la formation se fait suivant une alternance entre sessions de formation théoriques et activités-terrain.
- Co-prise en charge: la prise en charge du jeune enfant ne peut se faire en vase clos ; elle n’est pertinente et efficace que si elle concerne à la fois la structure, les familles et la communauté.
- Intégration des différents volets tant dans leur conception que dans leur mise en œuvre. Elle part du principe de l’égalité, de la simultanéité et de l’indivisibilité des droits de l’enfant.
- Flexibilité : une formation ouverte qui s’enrichit des apports d’autres expériences et de la recherche-action et qui respecte les spécificités du milieu.

Le Manuel de Référence
Le référentiel de compétences qui figure dans le manuel de formation définit les compétences que doivent maîtriser d’une part les personnels des centres DIPE, en formation initiale dans les domaines de l’éducation, de la santé, de la nutrition, du développement communautaire, de la protection, et, d’autre part, toute personne ayant en charge l’enfant dans la famille. Le dispositif de formation est centré sur une approche modulaire et un module est élaboré pour chaque compétence.

The Programs

a)Education
This component includes stimulation and socialization activities that develop the intellectual, psychomotor and socio-affective abilities of the young children to enable them to learn under good conditions.
Young children in the “Case des Tout-Petits” are offered several activities: drawing, language instruction, numeracy, psychomotor activities, art, as well as perceptive and sports activities …

b)Health
The multi-purpose facilitators and volunteers at the “Case des Touts-Petits” work with the foster mothers to monitor the weight of each child and treat them against worms. The health workers help in running the health unit, checking to make sure the children do not suffer from certain deficiencies, and to protect them from infectious diseases.

c)Nutrition
This is nutritional support provided through the meals prepared by the foster mothers as well as vitamin A supplements.
In most cases, the children are given enriched meals, especially those children in the rural and sub-urban areas.
The foster mothers ensure that the children get a balanced diet. They also see to it that the children and pregnant women do not lack food, so that babies get good care from birth.

d)Micro-projects
Micro-projects are funded to encourage back-yard flocks and market gardening for adequate supply of animal and vegetable products.
The main reasons for implementing micro-projects are to increase the income of management committees so that they can adequately address the needs of the CTP and to deliver practical education to the children.

e)Computer lessons
Teaching children to use the computer has become a need expressed by parents, educators and policy and decision makers. The computertraining programme revolves around exploring with multimedia equipment (educational CD-ROMs, DVD, etc.).

f)Capacity building for parents, families and communities
The “Case des Tout-Petits” is also a place for informing, training and sensitizing parents to aspects of early childhood development (health, nutrition, education, protection). This places them in a better position to monitor young children in the family setting. Radio programmes are now being organized in Senegal for the enjoyment of children and for parental awareness.

g)The Child Sponsorship Project
birth to the age of six (6) years, and to create the right conditions for taking good care of children and giving them a better future. In this project, pregnant women living around the CTP are identified and sensitized by field workers to go for prenatal visits and get skilled birth attendance. After the child is born, a godmother or godfather is assigned to assist the mother in obtaining a birth certificate for the child and opening a savings account for the child until the age of six (6). The child’s mother takes it regularly to the CTP from birth until the age of two (2) or three (3). From there, the children attend the CTP until the age of six (6), when they enter primary school.

h)Center for Ressources
The National Agency for early childhood and "Case des Tout-Petits" has created a center for ressources to favor an access to the letter in all their diversity. In a more specific way, the center for ressources is both a receptacle and a liner for the whole Agency's branches. For that, it conducts activities witch mean to make successful the visibility and the permanence of the activities organized for the profit of the children, the teachers and the supervisory staff with the support of childcare specialized ressources persons or not. the center also popularizes the main activities of the Agency through the organisation exhibitions.

Staff

The team at the “Case des Tout-Petits” is made up of:
1-Multi-purpose facilitators and early childhood volunteers responsible for teaching
2-Foster mothers who serve as activity support staff
3-A grandmother who tells stories from the local culture with lessons for life
4-One or two religious knowledge instructors
The facilitators are supervised by the pre-school education inspectors who coordinate regional offices the National Agency for Early Childhood and “Case des Tout-Petits” The multi-purpose facilitators are holders of the BFEM (secondary school leaving certificate). They get professional training from the National Agency for Early Childhood and “Case des Tout-Petits” for a period of two (2) months, and then in teacher training institutes (EFI) for a period of six (6) months. When they graduate from there, they serve as early childhood volunteers.

Partnership Framework

The National Agency for Early Childhood and “Case des Tout-Petits” works under the direct administrative supervision of the Presidency of the Republic to run the national programme on the “Case des Tout-Petits”. It collaborates with all national ministerial departments and services that work in the field of early childhood: health, education, family, the environment, information, culture, agriculture…
A sustained partnership is being developed with local government areas.To implement the programme on the “Case des Tout-Petits”, the Agency collaborates with NGOs such as Plan International, CCF, Aide et Action, Counterpart International and women’s associations.
United Nations agencies like Unicef, Unesco, WFP and the Luxembourg Cooperation Agency assist us in implementing the Integrated National Policy for Early Childhood Development.

Management of the "Case des Tout-Petits"

To decide on how the “Case des Tout-Petits” will be managed, a General Assembly of village or neighbourhood inhabitants is organized in the presence of administrative authorities. A supervisory committee, made up about thirty members, is selected. This group designates a management committee with six (6) to seven (7) members that run the structure. Institutionally, the National Agency for Early Childhood and “Case des Tout-Petits” regional branch offices have been set up in the administrative centres in each region to ensure management of the sector at the local level.