The Early Childhood Education Program

These cute little water-carriers above are old enough to be a part of the ECCDE program.

Above is the land that was cleared by one community to make room for an ECCDE center which Child Hope Zambia provided for them.

CHZ works directly with the members of the community to build the centers for the children to learn.

Similar to the USA, the Zambian government does not provide preschool education. However, Child Hope Zambia recognizes the importance of early education. Since the government does not provide the communities with this, CHZ does so with the community's help.

The ECCDE program is extremely beneficial in helping the children whose parents have HIV/AIDS. The children of these parents would usually be at home caring for themselves while their parents lay in bed suffering from the horrible disease. Instead, they go to school where they play with their friends and get a head start on learning!

The classes work like this:

Children aged 2-4 are in day care

Children aged 5 to 8 are in preschool

Generally children in Zambia begin primary school when they are 7 years old. However, in the rural and poorest areas, children will sometimes start school much later. This is why there is such an age variance in many of the grade levels. With the ECCDE program, more parents are starting to see the value of early education, and their children are able to begin primary school on time.

The ECCDE centers that have been set up lack a lot in way of materials. This is due to the lack of funds. The sponsorship program will be bringing them educational materials that are vital to learning. I will post more about this in a later post. In the meantime, check out the cute little preschool children on the left hand side of the blog! To sponsor one of these little ones, it is just $9 a month!