A graduate student conducted research to help Imbuto Foundation implement the Early Childhood Development policy that was passed by the Rwanda government in September 2011.
University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service student Immaculee Kayitare of Kigali, Rwanda spent the past 3 months creating a data collection system of the pilot Early Childhood Development center in order to allow monitoring and future evaluations and as well as researching creative ways to make the center self-sustainable.
The student created indicators to assess the impact of the center to the 146 children and 100 parents that attend it and created several tools such as home visit files, children files, and report templates that will facilitate the collection of data and its analysis.
The outcome of the student’s work will be fundamental. ECD Kayonza is a reference center therefore the tools that the student developed will be replicated and scaled up throughout the country, said Gladys Mutavu, Early Childhood Development Project Officer.
Imbuto Foundation is an NGO presided by the first lady of Rwanda, her Excellency Mrs. Jeannette Kagame, to serve disadvantaged Rwandans mainly youth, women, and children. Imbuto fulfills its mission through advocacy, community outreach, mentorship, fostering partnerships and unleashing young talent.
Kayitare presented the results of her research to the Director General of Imbuto Foundation on January 6.
Kayitare completed the project as part of the Clinton School’s Capstone program, the last of the three field service projects in the Masters of Public Service degree program.
About Early Childhood Development Policy:
The Early Childhood Policy aims to have all children in Rwanda reach their full potential physically, mentally, socio-emotionally and cognitively. Mothers, fathers, guardians, caregivers and the entire community must assume their supportive, nurturing, stimulating and protective responsibilities for a child to be healthy, well nourished, safe, mentally alert, stable, sociable, and ready to learn.
Imbuto Foundation developed and implemented an integrated community-based Early Childhood Development model center addressing cognitive stimulation and school readiness of 0-3 year olds and 4-6. This initiative was financial supported by One UN. UNICEF collaborated with Imbuto Foundation to set up the first facility for integrated early childhood development services in the district of Kayonza (Eastern Province) and elaborated a design for the physical structure of this model.
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