February Monthly Report

INTRODUCTION

Childhood is a period where life-course personality is formulated, experimentation are made, and independence is developed. Healthy child and adolescent grow and develop into thriving adults. However, disparity within the Nigerian States, lack of access to quality services, Crises and insurgency, maltreatment and noxious lifestyles, have negative effect from the child to the youth in the society – children and adolescents. According to WHO, investing in health, social care and education in early childhood and working with the families who have need of support to improve their parenting skills, has proven to be the most effective way to improve, increase and reduce inequality. Evidence shows that high-quality early years investments and services can balance the effects of disadvantage on early child development and promotes the full developmental potential of all children. Such efforts must be continued throughout childhood and adolescence.

TAHSERI has taken into account the challenges facing children and young people in Kaduna and Taraba and Adamawa state and uses data obtained from household assessments and prevailing circumstance in the states to draw up activities which focuses on the health and well-being of child, adolescent and youth from a Health, Educational and Social determinants perspectives. TAHSERI believes that all children, adolescents and youths should have the opportunity to have a secure and healthy transition into adulthood, equipped with the necessary skills and competences to make a positive contribution to their society.

This report is created to provide an overview of TAHSERI humanitarian program. It covers operations in 3 states (Kaduna, Taraba and Adamawa) and focuses on programmes. It provides an overall picture of TAHSERI programming toward its vision.

CECED Intervention in Taraba State

For a child in communities of Sunkani and Barkin Dutse in Ardo-Kola LGAof Taraba state, it is probable that his/her family will have markedly low income which makes parents’ main concern survival rather than the child’s curiosity. Even when one considers the fact that remittance income must be easing some of the burden, life can be extremely busy; just taking care of the livestock, a small patch of land, water, daily meals and other duties can be taxing. In her circumstances, the mother can only take care of the child’s basic necessities and there is a limit to which she can attend to his/her questions. The siblings may be occupied with children their age, or helping out at the house and doing homework. They don’t have a mother’s patience with a child, the learning they impart is informal, more on the practicalities of life, but for the most part they are also still learning. Adding to this is the repeated attacks by herdsmen and other communal crisis in the state, which gave TAHSERI concern on education especially the Early Childhood Education (ECE). This was evident from her interaction with the communities and rapid assessment conducted on the issue in these communities. Despite all measures put in place by the three tiers of Government (which includes the development of the curriculum, training of special caregivers and provision of instructional materials), there are still gaps in the implementation and non-implementation of this program.

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) a holistic approach that guarantees both child survival and development is the child’s right. The right to education is most at risk during crises and during the transition period following a crisis.Thanks to TY Danjuma Foundation for the Taraba Community Fund grant to TAHSERI to which through her proposal outlined ways to give the young child education, protect these children and help them build resilience so they can survive, grow and reach their full potential through the implementation of the ” Creating Safe space for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED”) Project in Barkin Dutse Ward and Sarkin Dutse Ward Sunkani, Ardo-Kola LGA Taraba State with the goal of promoting early childhood development education as a tool for human capacity development in the two wards.

On Friday, February 22^nd, TAHSERI, in order to create enabling environment for implementation of CECED in the 2 communities of Ardo-Kola LGA carried out an Advocacy visits for introduction and acceptability of the project . A visit was conducted in turns to the Community leaders of the two communities where the project will be implemented. The objective of this visit to the communities was to explain the rudiments of the project, the scope, and seeking their acceptability of the project, community participation and mobilization for the project. While explaining the importance of the project targeted beneficiary, TAHSERI Project team which visited this community informed the community members that the project targets children from ages 3-5 . This is because the first five years of life represent a period of significant transformations and achievements that will serve as the foundation for the rest of the child live and in Supporting healthy early childhood, it requires multi-sectoral approach ranging from education, health, and nutrition among others. As such, early period of a child’s life plays a crucial role in preparing the child to meet the challenges of later educational opportunities. TAHSERI Project management team briefly educated the community members of what is expected of them adding that TAHSERI will facilitate the training of caregivers/teachers on how to handle these classes and how to build or guide the child through the learning experiences provided by the ECCDE curriculum. Furthermore, this target group will be drawn from households within the community, about the school because of the targeted age through a careful assessment and enrolment process.

In Bakin Dutse ward, the visit recorded about 55 persons in attendance mostly male including the Community Head of Bakin Dutse and the School Management Board Committee (SMBC) of the community.

In Sunkani ward project management team met with the head of Sunkani, district heads of areas around Sabon Layi Primary School and community members. The advocacy meeting had an attendance of about 13 persons in attendance form the community all male. (Reference to Taraba Report on advocacy to sunkani and Barkin Dutse ward)

A visit was conducted in turns to Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women Affairs, Taraba Statete Universal Basic Education Board, and the Educational Secretary (ES), Ardo-Kola LGA. Although Advocacy letters were accepted by representatives in the office, the Project management team reschedule another visit to meet with the head of the various MDAs

Child and Adolescent Health Activities In Kaduna State

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. One of which focuses on health – SDG 3. Much of the morbidity and mortality among children and young people is preventable. Low-cost measures that have been shown to work could prevent two thirds of deaths. Children and adolescents need clean air, nutritious food, clean water and a healthy way of life.

Children still die due to preventable causes such as Cholera, diarrhoea and soil transmitted helminths (STH). Young people are also affected lack adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management which can leads to toxic shock syndrome, reproductive tract infections (RTI), and other vaginal diseases. Most girls are unaware and unprepared for menarche as they are not informed or ill-informed about menstruation. To ensure that every child has every opportunity to live a healthy and meaningful life and In line with Her objectcive to promoting the health of the Child and gender equity, TAHSERI Kaduna choose to investing in children and adolescent health activity which is also a component of Water and Sanitation Hygiene activity : through activities such as the soil transmitted helminth for the child and Menstruation hygiene management for adolescent in Junior secondary schools .

TAHSERI Activity management team conducted an Advocacy Visit to Ministry of Health (MoH) Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (MoWASD) to introduce the activity whist seeking their support and collaboration to and for the success of the activity. although letters which accompanied the visit was collected, all Ministry visited advised the AMT to reschedule the visit after election so that they will have opportunity to fully converse on the activity.

The team also visited the below 9 schools in Chikun LGA of Kaduna state to introduce the activity and seek for their support, approval and make available within their demanding time 10 minutes to sensitize the children and the teachers on the dangers of soil transmitted helminths(STH) and the importance of hand wash.

The schools are:

Nasscity Evangelical Academy, Nassarawa
Unique Standard Academy, Nassarawa
Pet International School, Trikania
Paul’s Cath. Nur. And Pri. School, Nassarawa
Andrew’s Ang. School, Nassarawa
Trinity Academy, Nassarawa
Mount Camel International School, Nassarawa
Blessed School, Nassarawa
Macdave School Nassarawa