Ruth Phiri, a supervisor says the centre is a brainchild of Maureen Mwanawasa, the wife to the late Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa. “The project takes care of marketeer children that is why we are found right in the market,” says Phiri.

The initiative of the school within the market has brought joy to parents. Beatrice Mulwanda a mother who sells dry fish in Kapiri Mposhi Market says the school has relieved her from the hassle of selling and taking care of her children.

“I have two children at this school. Before the school started it was a problem to look after the children in the market,” she says.

Amundame which means “take care of me” in one of the local languages provides education, nutrition and recreation to children below the age of six. The school answered a huge need for the people of Kapiri to have a secure place for their children while they go about conducting their business in the market.

Amundame Early Childhood Care Centre is targeting children from poor and disadvantaged households. Many children in Zambia find themselves caught in the web of HIV/AIDS and the number of orphans continues to soar. Most households especially those headed by grandparents are unable to provide their families with basic needs even though harvests in most districts have been good over the years. Such homes have found a caring partner in Amundame. Ruth Phiri is happy with what has been achieved so far.

Squatter

“Some children come from child headed homes, grandparents headed homes… very vulnerable homes. The response is very good but the space cannot allow us to take in all the children,” she says.


Children in a crowded classroom

Dailess Mutale is one of the grandmothers who have benefited from the idea of a school in the market. She lives in Material Compound - one of the rambling squatter and unplanned settlements of Kapiri Mposhi. Selling at the market is Dailess’s only source of income. The money she makes is not enough but that makes it possible for her to prepare a few meals each day.

She says: “I enrolled Agnes (granddaughter) into school because I used to experience hardships taking care of her and being in the market. Her mother died when she was one year old.”

Most families in Material Compound live in small brick houses that are no more than 8 to 10 feet. Hundreds of children have been orphaned, many left to fend for themselves.

Grandparents like Dailess, after suffering the loss of their own children to the AIDS pandemic are left with the seemingly insurmountable task of raising handfuls of grandchildren on low and unreliable incomes. Dailess is calling upon well wishers to assist her take care of her grandchildren.

“I need assistance for my grandchildren especially Agnes who is in school,” she says.

Early childhood care may not be a solution to these problems but studies have shown that it can enhance children’s mental, physical and social development. As noted by Nobel Prize winning economist James Heckman, “Investing in disadvantaged young children is a rare public policy that promotes fairness, social justice and at the same time productivity in the economy and in society at large.”

At Amundame, children meet in a classroom-based set up just like in formal schools. The children learn how to read and write. They are also given recreation facilities. Gift Simbozole is a teacher at the school.

School feeding

“In this class we teach quite a number of things; we teach them the alphabet, arithmetic, science and many other subjects,” he says.

The school feeding programme thrives on hand-outs and assistance from some local companies and donors. The mothers from the local communities assist in cooking and serving the children at no cost to the school.

While Amundame paints a picture of a flourishing early childhood care, development and education system, the sad reality is that the concept is new in Zambia. It also falls short of full government support.

A Curriculum Development Officer who opted to remain anonymous says the government is in the process of introducing guidelines and a curriculum to guide these centres.
“I am not in charge of policy but definitely there are people who can tell you about government commitment to early childhood,” she says.

In Kabwe of the Central Province of Zambia, Mulumbo Early Childhood Care assisted the local people put up a beautiful structure which is beset with serious challenges. Mulumbo Centre in Nakolic Compound has all the services required for a successful school from outdoor play facilities to good sanitary amenities. The school however has insufficient and untrained teachers. Community members or caregivers have taken the initiative to teach the children on a daily life.

”We are all caregivers; no one was trained as a teacher but it is out of passion that we are here,” says Bertha Chanda a coordinator at Mulumbo Centre.

Some communities have put together their local resources to establish early childhood care and development centres. The Simwaba Early Childhood Care Centre in Mazabuka District, south of Lusaka on your way to Livingstone is one such example. India Hambuli says the centre was started by the local community who received assistance from an NGO called Child Hope to complete the construction of the school for children.

Home

“We teach the parents how to take care of their children in their homes before they come to this school because early childhood starts from home.”


One of the pupils on the school compound

Hambuli adds that the centre is also used for health related services such as polio immunization, under five clinics as well as growth monitoring activities.

“Early childhood programmes also takes care of other needs of the children such as health, nutrition, water and sanitation services,” he says.

Although Zambia signed up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Education for All (EFA) goals and the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, there has been no real commitment to localize many of the aspects of these conventions. The EFA goals in particular, call for comprehensive ECCDE services to all children regardless of their background, gender or abilities by 2015. Serious questions continue to be asked about Zambia’s commitment to these international conventions especially now that the Education Bill is yet to be presented to parliament.

Michael Banda from UNICEF says: “What I would like to see in the Education Bill … is the issue of early learning that it should be a government responsibility plus that of the private sector.”

Currently early childhood programmes are provided by non – governmental organizations, faith based organisations and civil society. Early Childhood Care, Development and Education (ECCDE) as the name implies, is the full range of health, nutrition, early education, and social services that provide for the holistic needs of children aged between 0-6.