Child education is a framework that consolidates the ability of the child to became an effective instrument to the development of himself/herself, the community, the nation and the world as a whole. This project is to educate child. All children have the right to education and to grow in an environment that protects them from violence, exploitation, abuse and discrimination. The project intends to remove some of these children from work situation through stern and extensive advocacy and support their enrolment in to primary schools in their vicinities for them to acquire basic primary education to improve their chances for a better living. The project will address the problem food availability and inadequacy of income through an interactive training program of target families, in swamp development and improved farming activities. The project will also target the capable women in the target families for training in intensive vegetables and small animals and marketing. The project is primarily designed to address a Fundamental Human Right of all children. That right is to Basic Primary Education; and in these particular case for children in all forms of exploitative work situations.
Background
All children have the right to education and to grow in an environment that protects them from violence, exploitation, abuse and discrimination. The project intends to remove some of these children from work situation through stern and extensive advocacy and support their enrolment in to primary schools in their vicinities for them to acquire basic primary education to improve their chances for a better living. Those overage and/or could not complete or fit in to formal education system will be provided with structured skills training for self-reliance.
The physical and intellectual immaturity of children makes them particularly vulnerable to human right violations. Some of these work situations expose them to all sorts of danger and abuses. The ill treatment of children calls for special attention because children cannot speak for themselves. Their opinions are seldom taken into account by the family, caretakers and even governments in especially in developing countries. The project is primarily designed to address a Fundamental Human Right of all children. That right is to Basic Primary Education; and in these particular case for children in all forms of exploitative work situations. Despite progress in peace, security and development after the war in Sierra Leone, total net enrolment rates in primary schools remain at 70% and according to UNICEF, about 300,000 children are out of school in Sierra Leone. As these numbers do not give insight in to who these children are, the driving questions are: who are these out of school children? Why are they out of school? How can access to primary education be increased for this group? In order to geta good picture of the situation, UNICEF (in 2008) collected data in 54 rural and urban pilot communities, representing all possible scenarios in the country. A total of 33 focus groups discussions were conducted and 379 participants participated directly in the in-depth survey. The main findings of this UNICEF survey are: Poverty is the primary reason as to why children are out of school. Children may be at risk of not being in school due to their geographic location, gender, religion and family situation. The death of any or both parents ranked second to poverty as reason why children are not in school Orphans and children living with extended family members (or caretakers) are the most exploited and marginalized children in their community.
The project area comprises of villages and settlements in and around and Mile 91, Located in the Yoni chiefdom, Tonkolili district. The town is a key junction town in the centre of Sierra Leone. It is one of the first areas of deployment of the United Nations (UN)peacekeeping forces in the provinces. Being a major marketing centre and refreshment point for the traveling public, thousands of the unaccompanied children and even those with their natural families are presently engaged in a variety of work situations in the town and surrounding villages. Most do not go to school. These children make huge contributions to the sustenance of homes.
Target Group
The primary beneficiaries of the project are:
- A total of 100 overage/primary (14 to 17 Years) school dropouts in the MECWS programme will benefit directly from free commercially viable and self-sustaining skills training at the MECWS centre. Preference will be given to girls.
- A total of 200 children (120 Female 80 male) in work situations within the ages of 6 to 13 years will be provided with the first set school uniforms, and school materials free of charge to facilitate their enrolment in to primary schools. The targeted children will be selected from families/custodians that will make the required contribution and commitment for training and capacity building in food and income generation. The family heads will be in contract with MECWS and the community leaders to continue with the provision of school materials and lunch to the children in subsequent years of their primary schooling.
- Villages in the project area have been selected for the initial training of targeted family heads and other interested residents for the swamp development training. Some overage children in the MECWS project will be encouraged to undergo the training as a means of securing contracts for future developments. A total of 5 complete acres each of Inland Valley Swamps (IVS) for intensive food and vegetables. A total of 20 acres of swamp will be developed after the very interactive training the project area.
- Not less than 5 families (average 8/family), total 100 persons will benefit from the use of the 20 acres developed swamps for rice production after the training. The selected families will provide free labour required for the practical work required in the development. After the development, the participants will receive improved seeds of rice for their labour. They will use the rice supplied to cultivate the developed swamps under the supervision of MECWS staff.
- Two times the number of families will benefit from the use of the developed swamps for intensive vegetables product during the dry season. Women take the lead in vegetables production and sales, therefore not less than 40 women representing families will be provided with basic training in the production of vegetables and start up high quality seeds and tools and supervision for cultivation the 20 acres of developed swamps with assorted vegetables mainly for income to support the expenses in the home that include school materials and charges.
Indirect Beneficiary of the Project
- The communities surrounding the project will benefit from the sensitization on children’s rights an HIV/AIDS. The swamp development training and production activities of the MECWS will provide food and vegetables and that will benefit the community in their daily and community development aspirations. Activities in the developed swamps are varied and intensive. The communities will benefit from increased production and trade in vegetables. Women concentrate more on vegetables product, with the absence of any form of irrigation in the project areas, they have to depend on the rain for moisture. This will change gradually as the communities see first-hand the advantages of using the swamps for crops production. The targeted swamps are all perennial and could be used all year round when developed with proper the water control structures.
Project Objectives/Goal and Indicators
- The Overall Goal/Impact: Increased basic education and economically viable and self-sustaining skills among children in work situations in Yoni Chiefdom
- Key Indicator for the achievements is:
- There will be a significant increase in the number of children in work situation that complete primary schools in the project area.
- There will be an increase the number of overage/dropouts MEWCS children that graduate with economically viable and self-sustaining vocational skills at the end of the project period.
- More girls will be able to acquire basic primary education as the proportion of female targeted by the project is 60%
- Project Purpose/Outcome
- Parents increase expenditures for the education of their children
- Increase in the number of children attending school with food
A key indicator is decrease in the use of children purely for farm and other family labour situations. Another indicator is less out-of-school children will be seen at home or in the streets. The girl child is in most homes not even considered for any form of education. Early marriage for girls is just part of the tradition openly held. The project will target not less than eighty percent of girls in the school enrolment process and will always make space available for girls in the training component.
Women take the lead in the cultivation of vegetables. The improved cultivation environment and initial supply of inputs will increase their spending on the education of their children. Basic primary education will enlighten some of the girls and reduce the numbers who succumb to early marriages.
Project Output/Results
- The Expected output/results for key components of the project are:
- At the end of the project, 90% of the 200 children will complete primary school education
- At the end of the project, 90% of the 100 older children and youths will complete vocational training.
- At the end of the project 20 acres of improved swamps for rice/food production will be produced for use by families of the children in the MECWS.
- At the end of the project, 200 small home businesses will be established in the homes of children.
Vegetable production is predominantly women activity in the project area but most of this is done on the uplands where the rain is the only source of water. Irrigation systems are non-existent. Unlike the uplands, the water regime in the developed swamps is such that moisture is available all season. Therefore, crop production is possible all season. The women emphasize more in commercial vegetables production to raise income for food supplements and other family expenses. The developed swamps will no doubt benefit the women more. It only requires the intensive cultivation of small areas of swamp to produce yields more than twice that in uplands.
Project Activities and Working Methods
The project is designed to continue implementing the Movement to Educate Children in Work Situation (MECWS) project in a sustainable manner. The project will also target the root cause of child labour in the project area which is poverty in a stimulating training and production activity. The project will target custodians of children in work situation and those at risk for improvement in the food and income situations in the home. This way the initial effort of enrolment of children in to schools by the MECWS will be maintained. The following are key activities of the MECWS for the next three years.
The project will continue with the provision of staff and facilities, transportation, organize sensitization and continue the support, this time only target materials and uniform for the enrolment of 200 MECWS children in towns and villages in the district. Subsequent years of support for the enrolled children will be taken Overby the families after a capacity building scheme that involved improved food production and income has been established.
The project will continue with vocational training for overage/dropouts. More courses relevant for the survival of the trainees in their villages will be included. A few discovered in the End Project Evaluation were cloth weaving, black smith, weaving of mats and baskets. The existing course (Carpentry, motor mechanics, welding and tailoring) will be catered for by the project with equipment, materials and personnel for the training of older children in the MECWS program who could not continue with formal education. The project will also strengthen the production capacity of the training sector with quality materials, personnel and marketing strategies for the overall sustainability of the project.
The Project will continue with the services of the outreach staff and include and a qualified and experienced Agriculturist this time to supervise the agricultural training and food production aspect. The previous project employed 4 outreach staff members the project will continue their engagement. Their wages and benefits will be improved. This will give the movement the capacity and latitude it requires to make multiple and more frequent contacts with the 200 targeted children in the project and an equal number of parents, guardians and employers. The officers will also be mobilizing meetings with community and religious leaders, to support the implementation the food production and income projects
The MECWS will continue to restore hope and confidence of the over 200children in work situations already in the programme in Mile 91 and the immediate villages and settlement through psycho-social counselling and remedial education. The outreach staff will be empowered with the necessary logistic to decentralize the remedial classes in this new project. They will be scheduled to conduct remedial classes three times in the week at different locations of their assignment. This way more needy children far away from the MECWS Outreach enter will benefit from the counselling and remedial classes.
The project will continue with its sensitization drive only this time a more pragmatic approach will be adopted. All the available media will be used; Radio, Rallies, Seminars etc, the sensitization will target Children’s Right issues and HIV/STDS. Major stakeholders in the communities will be engaged in dialogue for their support and contributions to the sensitization.
A new dimension to the project aims at not only designing an exit strategy but to tackle a key reason for child labour in most homes in the project area: Poverty. In the new dimension of the project, custodians of children in work situations and those at risk of being in work situations will be targeted directly with training in swamp development and to improve food and income generation. The project will phase out continuous yearly supply of school materials to already registered
they can finally move down to the swamps they can use year in and out.
Four (4) villages have been selected for the initial development of 5 complete acres each of Inland Valley Swamps (IVS) for intensive food and vegetables. A total of 20 acres of swamp will be developed in the project area after the training. Not less than 5 families, total 100 persons will benefit from the20 acres developed swamps during rice production. The selected families will provide free labour required for the completion of entire training in the development process; they will then be supplied with improved rice varieties and supervised during the first period of rice production. Experienced professionals from the Land and Water Development department of the Ministry of Agriculture will be contracted to carry out the training and supervision of the development. They will also be training key community personnel, some of the overage children in the techniques of basic water control for food production in the inland valley swamps.
Training of MECWS staff and other key project participants will also be intensified. Experienced resource persons from the Child Welfare Secretariat of the Ministry of Social welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs will train the entire outreach, training and management staff of the MECWS, head teachers of the school having the MECWS children. Training will cover among others children’s rights and protection issues, the hazards of child labour. It will also cover ways of increasing awareness in the children, their parents/wards and other participants in the project of the cause and mode of transmission of HIV/AIDS and the means by which they can protect themselves.
The provision of office supplies and materials to enable the MECWS keep records, process data collected, compile reports and carry out other function properly.
Sustainability of the Project
The organisation will continue to look for national and international partnerships for the continuation of the MECWS. The MECWS already has some autonomy in its implementation. This will be made easier as successes of this project are made available to potential donors. That notwithstanding, and in the event that funding and support is not secured for the continuation of the movement, the sustainability of the project hinges on two aspects of the project: Longer term support and community sensitization for quality participation in the MECWS project and strengthening and the Production and Training (P&T) activities of the MECWS project.
Apart from the materials and services they will be receiving from the project, a key factor that will also assist in keeping the children in school and training is the moral and material support they will be receiving from the MECWS project, parents, guardian, employers and the community leaders. This project will continue with rigorous sensitization for the support for children enrolment and continued support in school. Those who could not continue or be assimilated with formal school will continue to benefit from the skills training and apprenticeship in the production and training section of the MECWS.
The MECWS already has an Outreach Centre constructed in the first project on an acre of land space provided by the community elders. The project has already established a small skills training programme that will includes metal works, electro-mechanics repairs, wood work, tailoring activities that will constantly be providing training for the older children and highly required goods and services to the community. The services will bring in income while at the same time provide the required training for the older children in the MECWS who could not continue with formal schooling. The four main course packages for the children and services to the community that will be established include.
- Metal works; including manufacturing and repair of local tools, home utensils, steel doors, gates, vehicle parts etc.
- Tailoring, dress making, designing, embroidery and catering etc.
- Woodwork including manufacturing and repairs of furniture, roofing, windows, doors, trucks etc.
- Motor mechanics involving the repairs of vehicle engines, motorcycles, generators
- Weaving of cloths, mats etc and Black Smith work will be included this time. The MECWS will continue to look out for skill that will be marketable in the village communities of trainees and include them in the package. The course packages will always try to involve the production of products and services that are no doubt very much in demand in chiefdom and district at large for by the community at reasonable but cost recovery rates for the project to sustain itself. The income from the products and services will be used to sustain not only the training but the continuation of enrolment for formal education of more children in work situation in the project area. The successes of project will put the MECWS in a better position for a follow-up project that will not only target more enrolments but also further support and assistance for the communities themselves.
Project Management
The overall custodian of the MECWS project is the Executive Director of organisation. The project is however organized around the management framework of the), Orphanage, and the Local Implementation Committees made up of original custodians. The organisation will facilitate the setting up of functional management structures that will involve all these stakeholders in the management. The project requires enormous community participation and cooperation from the children; therefore, the local authorities and organisation will continue to strengthen the field professionals and support staff that will be directly in charge of the daily operations of the project. They will receive the required training and refreshers later in the project implementation. The Project Management Committee (PMC) comprising the project manager, community leaders and children representative will be strengthened to continue to oversee the field operations of the project.
The organisation will organize monthly planning sessions for staff and the PMCs supervising the implementation of major activities of the project. This will be done during the monthly supervisory visits of the Executive Director and the Finance and Administrative Manager. The sessions will design strategies for popular participation and support for project operations. The sessions will take the form of sharing ideas without losing focus of the objective and milestones of the project. The session will take place every month. The children in the project will be represented in the committees. They will be encouraged to contribute in the planning of events and in the implementation. Sensitization and Mobilization for Community Participation Community sensitization for participation in the MECWS will also be a continuous event. It will take the form of home calls, public meetings, private meetings, workshops and seminars. Most of these will be organized with support and contributions from the children, community and religious leaders and school authorities.
Cost and Finance Plan
The overall cost of the project is estimated at XXXX. The community will be contributing the labour required for the swamp development training as their contributions. This will amount to XXXXX. For this they will inherit the training tools and be receiving the initial supply of good quality swamp high yielding varieties of rice seed. The women have committed to making cash contribution of XXXX per months for the first year of production. A total of 200 women will be targeted. So, a total of XXXX is expected. This will be used as matching savings fund for the setting up of viable commercial vegetables and animal production. The organisation will contribute mainly staff supervision time estimated at XXXX.
