Doug and Paisley in SWAZILAND: OSISA Colloquium, Mozambique

In addition to my work with the Ministry of Education in Swaziland, over the past 6 months I’ve also been under contract with the organization, Open Society Initiative Southern Africa (OSISA). OSISA is the foundation which spends George Soros’ fortunes (http://www.georgesoros.com/) with the purpose of promoting an open society. Mr. Soros is aging and looking to ‘leave his mark on the world’ (literally), therefore, he is exploring areas for ‘legacy’ funding. Primarily, in Southern Africa, he is looking to fund Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD). Most people think of ECCD as ‘preschool,’ however, ECCD actually comprises of six factors which contribute to the proper growth and development of children from 0-8 years of age. For example, the six factors include: healthcare, nutrition, shelter, protection, psycho-social support, and education. Therefore, preschool is one component, but there are also programs like immunizations, growth monitoring, PMTCT programs, orphan and vulnerable children services, maintaining the rights of the child, counseling, etc. that are imperative to the development of a child. My role with OSISA was to write a report about ECCD in Swaziland in order to highlight the funding opportunities for advocacy and program development. I conducted the research and co-wrote a report with a colleague working in ECCD in the north of the country, named Kathy. Then, all of the researchers from around the region met in Maputo, Mozambique to discuss the priorities in ECCD with government officials, civil society leaders, and even foundations.

Here are a few pictures from the week. You’ll notice the number of pictures from the hotel. I think that I’ve been living in a largely rural and underdeveloped country for too long, because I felt like I was at the Ritz…

The lobby

My room

When was the last time you saw one of these?

Nothing like a mirror in the shower to motivate you on the treadmill!

Speaking of treadmills; check out the gym (more treadmills than in the whole of Swaziland)

View from the treadmill

So fancy

Rooftop pool

Views of Maputo; it’s always nice to get a little dose of the ‘city’

Because the colloquium was held in Mozambique, and Mozambique is a Portuguese speaking country, we had to wear headsets to hear the translation of various presentations. I felt a little like I was in a United Nations meeting flicking channels on my headset in order to understand the language being spoken

Here are pictures of the Swazi contingency at the conference. We had both public and private sector representatives

My favorite researcher friend – Josie! She’s from Tanzania, but she wrote the report about Zambia because that’s where she is currently living with her husband and daughter.

In addition to the colloquium program, rural preschool providers in Mozambique set-up a few ‘booths’ outside of the conference room in order to share their work with participants. I was particularly taken by the creativity of the teachers in such a resource limited setting. Rural Mozambique is about as poor as it gets, yet, the teachers are finding a way to create meaningful experiences for children.

These are letter cards made from sandpaper that support children with letter identification while blindfolded. The child traces the letter with his/her finger and then tries to name it.

This is a variation of the ‘Go Fish’ game that you see in the States whereby the child uses a magnetic fishing pole in order to catch a plastic fish from a battery operated, rotating ocean. This is a painted shoe box, bent wire and beads! It supports the child in developing his/her motor skills, in concentration, perhaps with color identification, etc. Also, it’s a game – and young children develop through play. You’ll notice that one box has large beads and the other, small. This enables differentiated opportunities for children to practice this skill with success.

A creative solution for assisting a child in holding the pencil correctly

Matchboxes and beans for understanding number sense

A tactile game including different textures of material; good for vocabulary development

A matching game

My favorite – a critical thinking activity for young children! There are cardboard models including various patterns and then painted, wooden squares which are used to replicate the picture on the model.