Strengthening the Care Environment for Children in Central America

From the Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF), this 33-page paper is the result of a collective effort to describe the experiences and lessons learned among 5 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that rely on support, care, and education programmes to carry out work among children aged 0-6 years and their families and communities living under conditions of poverty and marginalisation in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. These NGOs, supported by BvLF since the 1980s, include: in El Salvador, the Centros Infantiles de Desarrollo (Child Development Centres) (CINDE) and the Fundación Salvadoreña de Desarrollo y Vivienda Mínima (Salvadorean Foundation for Development and Housing) (Fundasal); in Guatemala, the Fundación Esfuerzo y Prosperidad (Effort and Prosperity Foundation) (Fundaespro) and the Asociación para el Desarrollo Integral y Multidisciplinario (Integral and Multidisciplinary Development Association) (Appedibimi); and, in Nicaragua, the Centro de Comunicación y Educación Popular (Centre of Communication and Popular Education) (Cantera).

As explained here, these projects emerged in an environment of deficiencies occasioned by war, authoritarian government, and excessive centralisation in public administration. "Paradoxically, because of this deprived environment, the organisations were able to create early childhood development [ECD] services based on alternative, innovative methods....For example, they introduced teaching practices and curricula that had never been used in public schools. Because of the limited resources, they were obliged to experiment with approaches that relied on inputs from other public and private actors and on the participation, in the early childhood development processes, of the parents and children who were the beneficiaries."

Specifically, models of positive childhood environments in Central America described here are distinguished by "their holistic vision of the initiatives, the innovative nature of the approach to education and care, and the reliance on inter-institutional co-ordination in the delivery of goods and services for children." The organisations have identified and applied methods of support for children that differ from the sectoral approach of governmental organisations, including application of techniques based on the principle that families must be involved in education processes and on teaching and learning concepts and methods that are not reflected in official curricula. In contrast to public education programmes, participating organisations have relied on teaching concepts and techniques to develop knowledge and awareness on themes of social interest, such as by introducing messages designed to promote tolerance among students, families, and the education community - as articulated in the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989). Also, the organisations emphasise knowledge about concepts relating to environmental protection, gender studies, healthcare, and children's participation in the development of society through teaching environments and methods that foster the involvement of families, especially mothers, in education processes. Other concepts include the worldviews of peoples and inter-cultural experiences, such as the bilingual pre-school curriculum (in Ixil and Spanish) designed and used by Appedibimi in kindergartens that Appedibimi runs in Ixil communities in Guatemala. The teaching methods and materials used by the organisations include play activities and, according to project staff, the liberal application of affection and tenderness as a contrast to traditional techniques that draw a distinction between games and academic activity and rely on authority as a mechanism of discipline.

In the implementation of the projects, the organisations rely on a model for interactive processes among providers of services for children. This coordination has two goals. First, projects in support of children must arrange and distribute information on their work among civil society, the private sector, and governmental institutions and must also focus on the relationships that children develop with other members of their households. Second, childhood development processes must involve all relevant actors, including parents and teachers. This differs from the public education systems concept that considers students as the only recipients in education processes. All this interaction is reflected in the concept of a positive environment in favour of early childhood, that is, the effort to create and sustain an environment that facilitates early childhood development and in which various social actors may interchange. Organisers have found that the following cooperative actions must be undertaken among institutions - with the family as the focus - to construct and sustain a positive environment:

1. The projects must foster actions and create services aimed at guiding families in the development of an environment that stimulates the cognitive capacities of children and promotes the successful entry into and participation of children in the education system.
2. Local community organisations and the staff responsible for education and care are the initial line of support for satisfying education needs and helping families in childrearing.
3. The projects must embody good relationships among the implementing organisations, other public or private institutions, and international agencies so that financial, human and material resources are properly channelled towards early childhood development activities. Development organisations must therefore typically become advocates for early childhood development within the inter-institutional context.

As detailed here, the concepts of teaching and learning used in the development of education initiatives by the organisations supported by the Foundation owe much to the theories of popular education of Paulo Freire but also show the influence of other intellectual developments and modern methodologies. For instance:

• At Appedibimi, projects are based on the idea that children are active learners who play and otherwise interact with objects and people.
• At Cantera, curricula and pedagogical methods are based on the theories of Jean Piaget. The approaches of Daniel Goleman (1995) in his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ and Laurence E. Shapiro (2001) in his La Inteligencia Emocional de los Niños (The Emotional Intelligence of Children) are also used.
• At CINDE, staff apply the Montessori method, whereby children learn by themselves; for this reason, teachers should avoid creating dependence among the children. Staff apply techniques such as free play, free work and group activities. Jean Piaget's ideas about creativity and active discovery have also been taken up.
• At Fundaespro, education programmes are based especially on the learning theory of Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1962), who considered language fundamental to education processes. Staff consider students to be active agents rather than passive receptors of education. According to staff, the participatory method has the advantage of strengthening the capacity of creative and critical thinking.
• At Fundasal, childhood development projects are based on community development theories and a focus on the urban setting.

Also explored are the views of organisation staff on the concept of children's participation, reflected in the definition provided by staff at Cantera, according to which children's participation is an ongoing process of active expression and intervention by children in decision-making in different social contexts. Thus, the staff seek to develop the capacity of the children to act as protagonists. For example, Cantera fosters children's participation through:

1. The creation of a space to stimulate a sense of leadership among children:
   • Children aged 4 to 6 who have demonstrated leadership qualities in other activities are asked to participate in after-school events in which messages related to the rights of the child are communicated. The teachers rely on learning games, such as puppet shows, games in groups, or the telling of fables or fairy tales. Children choose the activity and decide how to carry it out. Children who have taken part in these after-school events then supervise similar events in their respective childcare centres. Activities are all recorded in a souvenir document which is put together by the teachers and others who add comments, descriptions, and additional information about the participation of the children.
   • Children aged 7 to 12 take part in an extracurricular course, the Programa de Habilitación a las Artes (Habilitation Program in the Arts), to stimulate the artistic ability of students. Children who have shown leadership qualities are asked to take part in meetings. During the meetings, themes are presented such as the rights of the child, self-esteem, gender studies, leadership, and organisation. Students are asked to present the same themes during subsequent events. They are given responsibility for the events, which use games and theatre techniques, and assisted in learning how to run group activities. Students also develop other community activities, such as the organisation of environmental protection activities, consultations on municipal development plans, and the circulation of messages in Ilusiones, a magazine that Cantera publishes twice yearly. Cantera staff provide technical support during the entire process.
2. Education and training among teachers through 2 courses. The first is for teachers in the childcare centres run by Cantera so that these teachers can become promotoras - advocates and agents - for child participation. The teachers are also trained to foster gender equality and respect for diversity. They study how to encourage children to express ideas. The second training course is aimed at teachers in other pre-school establishments.

Staff at the organisations supported by BvLF have indicated that their efforts to focus attention on the projects are aimed at accomplishing two tasks: awareness-building about the accumulated experiences of the organisations in project implementation, and advocacy within society about the situation of economically poor and marginalised children. These organisations also participate in local and national social networks, as well as social networks with organisations in other countries. They also undertake advocacy initiatives, summarised here, which have 3 goals: to change attitudes among individuals and institutions with respect to the relationships they have with children, to obtain resources for the implementation of projects, and to generate government policies in favour of children.

The final section of the document includes reflections from staff at Appedibimi, Cantera, CINDE, Fundaespro, and Fundasal in terms of lessons learned at their organisations on the basis of this experience. These reflections are organised into the following categories:

• Interpreting the context - for example, "there is a tendency among many adults in the three countries to deny that children have rights. This tendency is manifest particularly in the lack of support among adults for children's social participation";
• The successes of the projects - for example, at Fundaespro, one success is "[e]nthusiasm of the children because of their enjoyment of the teaching and learning activities";
• Making adjustments after failures - for example, at the beginning, the profile of the teaching skills and the nature of the teaching materials needed in the education projects of Fundaespro were unknown. Today, Fundaespro relies on a basic curriculum to train teachers, as well as teaching materials adapted to the requirements of students;
• The use of innovative methods - for example, at Cantera, staff note that education programmes have taught more than 5,000 children in art, music, dance, painting, handicrafts, and sports;
• Enhancing the abilities of other actors - for example, at Cantera, staff indicate that local communities appreciate the organisation because of the children's services it provides, but also because of the training initiatives it undertakes among the economically poor; and
• The support of volunteers - for example, at Fundaespro, an important element in the sustainability of the services provided through the community childcare centres is the many hours of work supplied by the women volunteers.