Youth Sports & Development Alliance of Kenya (YSDAK) The Children left Behind. Project Proposal. The Children left Behind.

Transcription

1 Youth Sports & Development Alliance of Kenya (YSDAK) The Children left Behind Project Proposal The Children left Behind Gerald Omollo 2014/2016

2 INDEX Introduction Page 3 The children left behind (tclb) Page 5 Project description and justification Page 6 Project design Page 9 Monitoring Page 12 Sustainability Page 13 Acronyms Page 14 Budget Page 15 2 P a g e

3 1. INTRODUCTION The Children Left Behind (TCLB) is a project of the foundation Support for Homa Hills (Netherlands) and Youth Sports & Development Alliance of Kenya (YSDAK) Youth Sports and Development Alliance of Kenya (YSDAK) is a Non governmental organization (NGO) based in Kenya. The organization was founded in 1999 initially as a self Help Youth group but later (2007) transformed into an NGO with the mandate of promoting child & youth development in the lake region of Western Kenya. Currently, the program activities are based in Kolwa locations of Kisumu County and Homa Hills in Homabay County. YSDAK exists to promote the full development and realization of potential by children and youth thus ensuring their full participation and contribution to the development of society, the organization endeavors to do this by expanding choices and opportunities for children and young people through holistic and participatory community based interventions. The initiative was born out of concern on the plight of disadvantaged children and youth who are affected by poverty, poor health, illiteracy, unemployment, drug and substance abuse and HIV&AIDS. a). Governance The organization is managed by a Board of Directors. The board is charged with key roles of policy formulation and the overall oversight of the organization. The current Board has a membership of 5 and meets on quarterly basis to review progress and advice on the way forward. On a day -to- day basis the Program Coordinator in liaison with the staff and volunteer centre co-coordinators are responsible for implementation and monitoring of the planned activities and ensuring that the program remains focused and relevant to the needs of the communities. The program is anchored on a 3-years ( ) strategic plan document that spells out the organization s purpose, aspirations, commitment, strategies and anticipated outcomes, as well as the mode of assessing performance. b). Partners In pursuit of its mandate YSDAK works in partnership with other development agencies with similar aspiration both local and International. Among its past and present partners are; Impulsis, Foundation Support for Homahills, NCDO and Royal Dutch Football Federation (KNVB), all of the Netherlands. The local partners include 3 P a g e

4 World Vision Kenya (Pala DA), Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, Ministry of Education and National AIDS Control Council (NACC). Present partners Past partners 1 National AIDS Control Council NCDO (Netherlands) 2 Ministry of Sports & Youth KNVB (Netherlands) Affairs 3 Foundation Support for Homa Hills (SfHH) (Netherlands). 4 The Children Left BehindProject of SfHH) (Netherlands) 5 Ministry of Education, Science & Technology 6 The target communities 4 P a g e

5 2. THE CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND (TCLB) The title The Children Left Behind is coined from the projects strong focus on disadvantaged Children who in most cases are left behind after death of either or both parents or hail from poor families and therefore tend to remain behind in the socialization and development process. TCLB Program was founded in 2007 as a response to the needs of children and youth in Kolwa locations of Kisumu County. The program endeavours to improve quality of life of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) by facilitating access to quality education, Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) and promoting skills and talent development. In pursuit of its goal and objectives, the program employs an integrated approach in addressing issues that militate against the well being and development of children and youth. Achievements 8 Youth centers established through which the project works directly with over 300 youth both boys and girls. The centres are managed by the youth themselves under the leadership of older volunteers. Runs a successful perennial sports tournament for youth to develop and nurture talent. Has a team of 23 Peer Health Educators (PHEs) who promote Health activities among their peer in the community. Owns Jamilo School; a modern Early Childhood Centre that caters for children from both rich and poor families. Owns a Youth Resource Center with a library, vocational training workshop and playing facilities. Runs a sponsorship program for supporting the education of Orphans & Vulnerable Children (OVCs). Currently the program is supporting 84 OVCs (73 in primary & nursery and 11 in secondary schools. 5 P a g e

6 3. PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND JUSTIFICATION a). The Challenge While Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) provides the foundation for childhood development and the subsequent formal education of pupils, the contribution of the government at this level of education is very minimal. The bulk of government spending in education is mainly confined to primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Thus the development of nursery education in Kenya is currently the responsibilities of the communities. Communities are expected to construct classrooms, provide learning materials as well paying salaries to the teachers. In poor communities like Kolwa, the standards of pre-primary education consequently remain poor due to inadequate physical facilities and few trained teachers. The communities often so overwhelmed by the struggle for survival that they have little resources left for proper investment in education. Most ECDE centre in central Kolwa have inadequate learning facilities such as classrooms, latrines, playing equipment, teaching aid materials, seats and water supply. Due to the aforementioned factors, there currently exists a discrepancy in the standard of education between privately owned ECDE centres and Community owned centres. Children from financially able families attend private ECDE centres with well trained teachers and good learning facilities while the majority of children from poor families whose parents/guardians cannot afford private school fees, attend community ECDE centres which are not only few but also lacking in facilities. In addition, communities are not able to effectively pay salaries to ECDE teachers leading to some classes being handled by volunteers who have no formal ECDE training and therefore cannot deliver the curriculum effectively. The Municipal Centre for Early Childhood Education (MUCECE) under whose jurisdiction ECDE centres fall, has not been effective in its role of coordination and quality assurance services. MUCECE being a department of the municipal council relies on the local authority to facilitate ifs functions but since the council is so heavily indebted, proper facilitation has not been forthcoming. The situation of the youth in Kolwa Central Location continues to be dire. As the communities grapple with the impact of poverty, children particularly continue to suffer the brunt of its effect leading to increased incidences of child abuse; early pregnancies, drug & substance abuse and school dropout among others. On the other hand, HIV&AIDS prevalence in the project area remains high, at 11%, the prevalence 6 P a g e

7 compares unfavourably with the national average of 7.4%. As UNICEF states in Africa s Orphaned Generations Orphaned children are disadvantaged in numerous and often devastating ways as they are likely to be poorer and less healthy, are more likely to suffer damage to their cognitive and emotional development, less likely to go to school and more likely to be subjected to the worst forms of child labour. Sexual activity among adolescent youth in Kolwa Central is high and starts early. The social, psychological, and medical implications of these are serious for the adolescent, their families and communities in general. Studies have indicated that parents have neither the skills nor information to respond adequately to the needs of their children. Most parents are also shy in discussing sexuality with their children. With breakdown in traditional structures that took care of such skills and other matters of interest to young people, most of them are left on their own to figure out things for themselves. As a result of lack of proper guidance, the youth in an effort to explore life, find themselves indulged in vices like drug and substance abuse, alcoholism, casual sex etc and become subject to abuse and exploitation. b). The Strategy Recognising that education is a basic right and that every child has a right to good education regardless of their social status, the program endeavours to work with development partners and the Kolwa Central communities in making ECDE services accessible particularly to children from disadvantaged families. Our strategy is to empower the local communities and the teaching fraternity to play active role in the development ECDE as well as engaging with other ECDE stakeholders especially MUCECE in strengthening the coordination of ECDE and ensuring delivery of quality pre-primary education services. The project will strive to reach out on community schools by engaging Parents and Teachers Associations (PTA) in efforts to improving learning facilities. Through this initiative we plan to support parents efforts in construction of classrooms, Latrines, Provision of chairs and tables and water tanks. Participation of the parents will however, be critical for a school to qualify for the support. The benefiting community must have initiated the project and contributed a minimum of 25% of the total cost. The fund will mainly go towards roofing, plastering of walls or floors as well as fittings (doors, windows). TCLB project currently runs Jamilo ECDE centre which is an important referral resource in the implementation of the proposed ECDE project. 7 P a g e

8 Recognizes that the youth are a valuable asset in the social and economic life of any community, TCLB is committed to facilitating youth friendly processes that ensure that young people are adequately empowered to manage the challenges facing them. The program strives to bring the youth together to socialize, share experiences and learn from each other through Sports, Behavior Change Communication (BCC) and Communal activities. The project will recruit and train 30 PHEs on HIV&AIDS, Adolescence Reproductive Health and drug & substance abuse and equip them with relevant skills to lead sensitisation and education outreaches to their Peers in schools and in the wider community. Through the PHEs the project will seek to increase the uptake of VCT services amongst the youth as a key preventive strategy. Similarly, PHEs will work closely with teachers to form child rights and health clubs at primary school level to serve as platform of engaging young people in seeking solutions to the challenges facing them. On regular basis, especially on weekends and during school holidays, the project will facilitate youth meetings at the centre as a means of promoting experience sharing and cross fertilisation of ideas. Occasionally, the organization shall enlist the services of professionals to share and guide the youth on the critical issues in their lives. Efforts will be made to source for play equipment and IEC materials which shall be at the disposal of the youth at the centre for purposes of recreation and learning. 8 P a g e

9 4. PROJECT DESIGN 4.1 OBJECTIVES Increased community participation in the development of quality learning environment and facilities in ECDE centres. Activities Mobilise and activate 10 Pre-primary School committees Carry out ECDE outreaches in the community Carry out training of School committees to sensitise on their roles, resource mobilisation and community mobilisation. Support parents in the provision of learning facilities Outputs/Outcomes Number of outreaches conducted and number of parents reached with ECDE information. Greater understanding on Children Rights by parents. Increased involvement of parents in the education of their children. Increased involvement of parents in ECDE development matters Strengthen Coordination, monitoring and evaluation of ECDE activities in Kolwa Central. Activities Facilitate Planning & Review meetings Facilitate the development of simple monitoring tools with stakeholders Support monitoring of ECDE activities Outputs/outcome Annual and quarterly plans well documented with clear performance indicators Documented lessons learnt for re-planning Monitoring tools with clear performance indicators. Improvement in the standard of ECDE learning in the zone Quality program reports 9 P a g e

10 4.1.3 Support ECDE teachers on curriculum content and methodologies to meet current and emerging challenges. Activities Conduct 3 days refresher training involving 50 teachers. Facilitate teachers to make teaching aid materials from local materials. Support zonal unified ECDE examinations every term Sponsor 30 teachers every year for an exposure trip. Output/outcome Affordable teaching aid for ECDE centres. Harmonised assessment standards for all ECDE centre in the project area. Motivated teachers Reduced vulnerability of youth of (10-20 years) to early pregnancy, drug abuse and HIV&AIDS and STI infections in Kolwa Central. Activities Train 30 youth on PHE Conduct regular youth meetings Facilitate formation of child rights/health clubs in schools Behaviour Change Campaigns Organize Health talks Source for IEC materials Output/Outcome Increased awareness among the youth about HIV&AIDS, Drugs abuse and Adolescence reproductive health. Improved Behavior Change (Abstinence, safe sex etc) Increased number of youth seeking VCT services Reduced morbidity and improved health of OVCs. Less teenage pregnancies 10 P a g e

11 Improved opportunities for youths to develop their talent and realize their potential Activities Training of sports trainers. Train referees Purchase balls and other playing equipments Organise tournaments Print T-shirts for teams Output/Outcome Teams of talented players Improved quality of games Improved discipline among youth in the program. Recruitment of talented player by established clubs. Qualified trainers & umpires for sustainability of the program. 11 P a g e

12 5. MONITORING The project plans to involve key stakeholders in developing simple monitoring and evaluation plan with clear indicators of success and means of documenting performance. A 2-day workshop will subsequently be held involving 30 participants to design data collection tools based on a Monitoring & Evaluation Plan (M and E plan). The project will work closely with MUCECE, Child Fund Kenya and other stakeholders to ensure that all the ECDE centres follow the recommended curriculum and have qualified teachers. The project will facilitate regular visits and follow up to schools to witness the learning process but most importantly to offer technical support to the teachers and the school at large. During such visits appraisals shall be done based on agreed activities and feedback given to the schools for improvement. Quarterly meetings will be used to get feedback from the schools and to review and reflect on the activities implemented with a view of learning from the experiences of teachers and education officials for purposes of forward planning Regarding the youth interventions the project will strive to review the existing monitoring tools to ensure that they are relevant and effective in documenting program results. Every month the Coordinators shall meet and report progress in their respective centers and consolidate progress reports for the management and the Board of Directors. The Board in their quarterly meetings will discuss the reports and feedback to the management. On regular basis the Board will make follow up to the project to verify extent of progress and offer spot check advice. The Program Coordinator will prepare a Mid-year and End-year reports detailing progress of events both financial and narrative for sharing with the board and partners. 12 P a g e

13 6. SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability is a key component of this project and is anchored in our approach of empowering communities to appreciate that the role of providing quality education and other services at whatever level, is fast and foremost their responsibility and those other actors are merely supplementing their efforts. Throughout this project the emphasis will be in building capacity of local people to a play significant role in improving quality of services to the youth and children. The trained teachers will be able to continue imparting their skills and knowledge in the community as long as they remained in the community while the school committees who are drawn from the community will be relied on to keep up their services in mobilising parents and guardians in providing resources for the improvement of learning in ECDE centres. In particular the project will endeavour to build the capacity of school committees and teachers on the recently launched Community Support Grant by Government to further aid their efforts. On the same note the project will strive to link the various school committees with relevant partners that could supplement their efforts in ECDE development. Deliberate effort will be made by the project to promote innovation and use of locally available resources in making teaching aid materials. TCLB will join hand with other ECDE stakeholders in petitioning the government to take responsibility in providing ECDE services including paying salaries to trained Preprimary school teacher in the same manner it is supporting Primary education. The program is dedicated to working directly with the youth with the aim of building a critical mass of young people with requisite capacity to spearhead positive attitudinal change and character building among their peer. The Peer Health Educators will become Community Own Resource persons to carry on with program activities past the project period. 13 P a g e

14 ACRONYMS YSDAK TClB NGO OVC BCC PHE IEC VCT PTA ECE ECDE Youth Sports & Development Alliance of Kenya The Children left Behind Non-governmental organizations Orphans and Vulnerable Children Behaviour Change Communication Peer Health Educators Information Education Communication Voluntary Counseling and Testing Parents and Teachers Associations Early Childhood Education Early Childhood Development Education MUCECE Municipal Centre for Early Childhood Education KSH Kenian Shilling (100 KSH = 0.90) 14 P a g e

15 Budget Item Number Rate Total 1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year Community Participation & capacity building Mobilise & activate 15 School Committes , , ,00 Carry out ECDE outreaches in the community , , , ,00 Train 45 School Committees on roles & mobilisation skills , , , ,00 Support parents efforts in providing learning facilities Block Block , , , ,00 Kenian Shilling Sub total , , , ,00 Strengthening coordination & Monitoring of ECDE Planning & Review meetings facilitation , , , , ,00 Facilitate development of Monitoring plan and tools , , ,00 Support of ECDE monitoring activities , , , , ,00 Kenian Shilling Sub total , , , ,00 Support to ECDE teachers on Curriculum 3 days refresher training for ECDE teachers , , , , ,00 Workshop on teaching aid production , , , ,00 Sponsor zonal ECDE examinations , , , , ,00 Exposure/educational tours for ECDE teachers , , , ,00 Kenian Shilling Sub total , , , ,00 Behavior Change & Peer Health Education. Train 30 PHEs for 5 days , , , ,00 Facilitate Youth meetings Block Block , , , ,00 Facilitate formation of Health clubs , , ,00 Behavior Change Communication Campaigns , , , , ,00 Health talks , , , , ,00 Purchase IEC materials Block Block , ,00 Kenian Shilling Sub total , , , ,00 Sports & talent development Train Sports Coaches & Umpires , , ,00 Acquisition of sports equipment Block Block , , , ,00 Organise youth sports tournaments , , , , ,00 Print T-Shirts , , ,00 Kenian Shilling Sub total , , , ,00 Administration Transport & communication Block Block , , , ,00 Stationery Block Block , , , ,00 Office utilities Block Block , , , ,00 Coordination, Follow-up & monitoring Block Block , , , ,00 Sub total , , , ,00 Kenian Shilling Grand Total , , , ,00 15 P a g e

16 YSDAK 16 P a g e