Breaking the cycle of poverty through early childhood development
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Early Childhood Development presentation, HOPE worldwide, Global Conference
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Breaking the cycle of poverty through early childhood development
- 1. BREAKING the vicious cycle of poverty for generational change: Early Childhood Development Dr Marc Aguirre
- 3. Lerato
- 6. Almost one in five residents in cities live in a shack More than half the population of South Africa lives in poverty
- 7. Half of all children in sub-Saharan Africa and one in five children in developing countries are growing up in extreme poverty*. *households that survived on an average of US$1.90 a day or less per person Unicef 2016
- 10. AIDS
- 11. Just over one in 10 South African girls WILL fall pregnant while still in their teens
- 14. 14
- 15. 15 The brain is experience-expectant and dependant
- 16. 2016 Lancet Early Childhood Development Series Advancing Early Childhood Development: from Science to Scale 4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary educationwww.thelancet.com/series/ECD2016 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
- 17. Parent Support Programs can significantly improve the quality of nurturing care for young children.
- 18. Group Sessions Key Skills Development Areas: Self-Confidence/esteem Positive Parenting Key ECD-associated topics
- 22. 22 REDUCED PARENTAL STRESS Lower levels of caregiver stress related to: • Higher levels of caregiver sensitivity to the child • Higher quality of caregiver-child relationship • Improved child behaviour 42 36 20 25 30 35 40 45 Baseline Follow-up PSA Score Linear (PSA Score) p<0.001 Baseline Follow-up 42% 36%
- 23. 23 IMPROVED CAREGIVER-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS • Improved emotional connection • Reduced maltreatment 0 2 4 6 8 Affection Responsiveness Teaching Encouragement Baseline Follow-up Overall: p<0.001 Affection Responsiveness Teaching Encouragement
- 24. 24 REDUCTION IN DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS • Improved developmental scores • Increased referrals 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 DD baseline DD follow up 3 of 5 areas: p<0.001
- 25. Improved…. Vaccinations Nutrition Reading & playing with children Child Safety
- 26. Oral Presentations in 2017 US GOVERNMENT PARTNER MEETING SOUTHERN AFRICA MEETING OF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES NATIONAL HIV/AIDS CONFERENCE
- 28. REACH in 2017 Parenting Program Numbers Parents/Caregivers 3,285 Children (0-6) 4,545 Assisting 272 Preschools Feeding nearly 19,000 young children on a monthly basis
- 30. EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT is… A Gospel opportunity A Developmental opportunity A Economic Investment opportunity A Global opportunity A Kingdom Opportunity
- 31. 31 THE VISION A Global ECD Strategy Mobilize Human and Financial resources An ECD Curriculum Partner with ECD experts and donors REACH 500,000 CHILDREN BY 2030 31
- 32. We have a unique opportunity to transform the Future
- 33. 33 LERATO means LOVE OFENTSE means VICTORY 33
- 34. THANK YOU
Editor's Notes
- Very grateful for this wonderful opportunity to share about the power of ECD.
- There a times when you look at something and you wonder – how can this be. Like a flower growing from a rock - thriving against all against all odds. And yet there it is.
- I want to introduce you to one such flower. I want you to meet Lerato. She is 22.
- And this is her home - a small shack made of corrugated iron and wood
- located in a shantytown called Zandspruit, west of Johannesburg, home to about 65,000 people many of them young cchildren. The bulk of the community is made up of similar that line narrow roads and a lattice of dirt pathways. Most have no water or electricity or drainage. A strong smell of raw sewage pervades the air. One clinic ad two primary schools This is where Lerato grew up.
- How do flowers grow in places like these, and how can children survive let alone thrive. A staggering fact is that in SA one in 5 residents live in shacks. And that nearly 30 million people are living in poverty. And do you know what the most common face of poverty we see is - a single, jobless mother with young children.
- “This not unique to South Africa. What is shocking is that half of all children in sub-Saharan Africa and one in five children in developing countries are growing up in extreme poverty. And the effects of poverty are most damaging to children and especially young children. They are the most vulnerable – the worst off - the deprivations they suffer and challenges the face can have a disastrous impact on the development of their bodies and their minds. We know that what happens in early childhood lasts a lifetime. And so it is critical that we act early and intervene through Early Childhood Development if we are to give children a chance of a better future.
- Lerato fondly remembers her mother’s tender love for her as a little girl. How special and precious she felt. She always made time for her to read and play and go on outings
- But entangled in these memories are other memories - dark memories of her very abusive father who would regularly beat her mother. And She lived in fear. So abusive - that they evetually fled. But her father found them and shot her mother in the face and leg. Her family would take revenge and shoot him and kill him. She saw it all - at just 5 years old.
- After months in hospital, her mother pulled through and she and Lerato re-start their new life together. But after a few years Lerato realised something was wrong. Her mother was getting sick and getting sick often. Things got so bad that Lerato at just 10 years old had dropped out of school to care for her mother. Feeding her, washing her, changing her – alone! That year her mother passed away that year. Cause of death? AIDS And HIV/AIDS, especially in Africa is still having a devastating impact of child development Lerato moved in with her grandmother until about 7th grade and then returned to live with her aunt. That relationship didn’t work out and she was kicked out of the house and lived alone supported by a church group.
- After her mother’s death Lerato moved in with her grandmother until about 7th grade and then was sent to live with her aunt. That relationship didn’t work out and she was kicked out of the house and lived alone from 10th grade 12 grade. In 12th grade – she fell pregnant. Her world was collapsing around her – she didn’t want the baby and wanted to abort –there was no future for the child. And she felt there was no future for her and wanted to commit suicide. But all her challenges, both past and present would seem to indicate that the odds are stacked heavily against them and the possibility of a better future for her son. What studies show is that what children like Oftense end up inheriting from their parents is destitution! perpetuating a vicious cycle of poverty and inequality This is when we found Lerato, alone, pregnant, destitute,, desperate and without hope.
- Today: this is Lerato and her son OFentse. She loves her 18 month old deeply and has hopes and dreams for his future just like every parent. They have enormous challenges and obstacles, both past and present – and the odds just seem heavily stacked against them of any possibility of a better future. In fact - what children like Oftense end up inheriting from their parents is destitution! perpetuating a vicious cycle of poverty and inequality. Poverty is robbing 250 million children of a brighter future – that is over a third of the worlds children under 5! But imagine if we could change these odds – change the future
- Brain science has uncovered an amazing window of opportunity to change the odds and level the playing filed. That children’s brains develop a lightning fast pace when they are very young
- In fact - we are born with about one hundred billions neurons or brain cells and what is extraordinary is that every second hundreds if not thousands of new connections are made between these cells
- During this time a child’s brain is like a sponge. It craves stimulation and positive experience. In supportive and secure environments, more and more connections are made – trillions and trillions of them. As important experiences are repeated so these connections become stronger and learning and memory are strengthened, but when a child lacks love, good nutrition and stimulation fewer connections are made and are even eliminated (or pruned), through the Use it or lose it phenomenon.
- ECD has become so important that major journals are stressing the importance of it - not only to children but to nations as a whole. Bottom line – when children thrive – nations thrive. There is now a global goal for ECD in the sustainable Development goals.
- And what is coming out of all the research is a simple but profound discovery. And that is that when a child feels loved and safe and gets the right nutrition and stimulation – their brains thrive. And so we need effectve Parent Support Programs can significantly improve the quality of nurturing care for young children.
- Let m tell you what happened to Lerato. She joined our PSG. During the sessions she learned how her own self-esteem and confidence can stimulate or stunt her childs development She learned about the power of positive parenting . She learned about developmental milestones and how to address delays in development . She even learned about the power of friendship forgiveness She has been transformed And now…
- She is transforming others
- Lerato is blooming and helping others bloom. She is having a tremendous impact on hundreds of women
- And women like Lerato are doing this all over the country
- And as we roll out our parenting program there are three really important areas we are tracking to measure impact Parental stress and were seeing that the program is bringing down stress
- We are tracking the quality of seeing improved caregiver-child relationship and we are seeing more Affection, Responsiveness, teaching and encouragement.
- And we are seeing a reduction in developmental delays in Communication, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Problem Solving, Personal/Social
- Were also seeing improvements in vaccination rates, better nutrition practices, more parents reading and playing regularly with their children. And more child safety and protection
- We’ve been fortunate to have had opportunities to present our model and impact at a number of meetings
- And we’ve been asked to train other organisations in our approach As well as spreading ECD into other HOPE ww programs in African countries
- We could not achieve this without the wonderful partnership with several companies and organisations We are also working closely with government and are privileged to have the Churches of Christ as our partner
- ECD is all about opportunity An opportunity to imitate God’s heart for little children and respond to his call for us to provide for and protect these little ones To Maximize the first few years of their development and future well-being Its an opportunity, as economists tells us, to make one of the smartest investments a country can make to address inequality and break the cycle of poverty, Its now seen as an critical opportunity that every country should prioritize I believe is also an incredible opportunity for HOPEww and our family of churches to make a lasting difference in the lives of children in need
- Where to from here? Our vision is Develop a Global ECD strategy that would seek to integrate ECD into HOPE worldwide programs around the world. Mobilise Human and Financial resources to fund a Global ECD Coordination team and country-level ECD programs. Introduce an ECD Curriculum for parents with young children into our family of churches, especially benefitting churches in the developing world Partner with ECD experts and donors to scale up evidence-based approaches
- We have a unique opportunity to transform their future and ours future by investing in the early years. We can help thousands of children not only survive & thrive
- By the way Lerato’s name means love, Ofentse’s name means Victory And there are Thousands of Lerato’s need our love and support Thousands of Ofentse’s need victory We need your help
- Together and across the world we can help flowers thrive in hard places.