About the Cause
Dubai Cares’ programs are designed to reduce, if not remove, the greatest obstacles that prevent children and young people in developing countries from attaining quality education. With each intervention, Dubai Cares evaluates the need for assistance across two key areas:
Access to Education which allows Dubai Cares to improve children’s health and learning environment, increase education enrollment and attainment, increase access to education, reduce absenteeism, increase gender parity and increase promotion rates.
Quality of Education which enables early learning, enhances educational attainment and school progression, improves literacy and numeracy skills among children, enables teachers to access teacher training resulting in better learning outcomes, reduce dropout rates and increase primary school attainment.
Dubai Cares is a long-term advocate of safeguarding children and young people’s right to education and is currently playing a global advocacy role in spreading the knowledge about the importance of providing education to the unprivileged children.
We also champion education through research - There is an overwhelming lack of evidence as to what works to promote children’s learning in crisis-affected contexts. Research plays a pivotal role in tackling this issue.
My Story
Background: Makululu is believed to be one of the largest unplanned settlements in Southern Africa. The settlement was established in 1950s by the Broken hill mines designated to be a farm block for retired workers. Makululu comprises five wards namely Zambezi, Chililalila, Moomba, Makululu and David Rumshu. The compound is about 1.5 kilometers from Kabwe Central Business Area on the Western side of Kabwe along Lusaka road off Great North Road. Kabwe Municipal Council currently runs an Early Childhood Education Centre in Makululu using a library building constructed with the support of the Copperbelt Environment Project. The Council also runs adult literacy classes for within the same premises and both have been running since 20th February, 2019. Enrolment has remained low among children due to parent’s inadequacy to support the children, for example with breakfast or lunch food and other school requirements. And we feel empowering female parents will stimulate their capacity to send their children to school. Project Title: EWOMEN EMPOWERMENT FOR ECONOMIC RESILIENCE AND CHILD EDUCATION (WE-4-ERCE) Executive summary: The proposed project is aimed at promoting women empowerment through capacity building and skills trainings to enable them generate income to support their CHILDRENS' EDUCATIONS. The project expected beneficiaries include 30 women and 42 children learning at Makululu Early Childhood Education Centre (MECEC). The project solution will be achieved through capacity building for women through training in basic business management (BSM) and establishment of start-up poverty relief business ventures to make women economically viable and resilient to Support children's Education. The project output include; capacity building trainings, empowerment through start-up poverty relief business ventures, establishment of child-friendly learning environment at MECEC and access to teaching and learning materials. Through this project, women will acquire practical skills and know-how to efficiently managing their businesses, have a stable income, contribute towards poverty relief, improve nutrition and parental childcare, increase enrollments and reduce absenteeism among learners at MECEC. The proposed project area is Makululu Community in Kabwe District of Central Province in the Republic of Zambia. This project is in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that support education and economic inclusion for women. Objectives: 1: To facilitate for capacity building and empowerment for 30 women whose children attend school at Makululu Early Childhood Education Centre. 2: To improve the teaching and learning environment at Makululu Early Childhood Education Centre (MECEC). Situation analysis This project proposal is emanating from the realizing that, there is a growing body of evidence that early childhood care and education lays the foundation for lifelong learning. Children’s early experiences have lasting influence on their future success in education and life since development takes place during the first few years of life for all later learning, behaviour and health. However, women as primary care givers have been caught up in circumstances that compromise their capacities to provide support towards children. In most cases, women assume motherhood responsibilities while they have no stable source of income, low levels of education, and a general lack of practical life support skill (PLSS) for survival. On this account, women end up being among the most vulnerable individuals apart from the old-aged and children in most societies (Giddens 2008). Further, teenage pregnancies, early marriages and low education also characterize most of the women growth to adulthood (Ministry of Education 2008). Therefore, most women spend time in undertaking petty business activities as evidenced by majority of women participation in street selling, door-to-door engagement in petty odd jobs i.e. washing, selling of repackaged charcoal, mealie-meal, vegetables, pre-cooked food and ice packs. As a result, most women fail to send their children to school, since their incomes are too low to afford school fees and feeding their children. Their businesses are also stagnant and are merely hand-to-mouth ventures. The scenario has even taken much of their time as ‘primary care givers to children and the family at large’. In most cases, children are left in the custody of older siblings or grandparents who are too weak to provide supervision and moral guidance to the children, especially on matters of education. Consequently, absenteeism, poor performance, and high dropouts affects most children in informal settlements. The above scenario has led to number of undesirable consequences as follows: • Reduced women/parental child care to due to lack of time to be with their families as they struggle for survival • Absenteeism among the school going children as observed at Makululu Early Childhood Education Centre (MECEC) • Poor nutrition among children as most children come to school hungry/stay away from school due to lack of food • Lack of commitment from parents towards supporting their children’s education. We has observed that children attend school without learning materials and food. • Most of the women involved in business fail to grow and become established. Such businesses have always been on and off without signs of growth. • General lack of practical life support skills (PLSS) among most parents to make them competitive and be resilient to the economic challenges in society We therefore seek support in order for us to implement this projects.