Working with Preschool Children

A Terre des hommes Italia e-Toolkit on Early Childhood

After completing a two-year intervention in the Gaza strip, Terre des hommes Italia presents and makes available for free download and consultation its e-Toolkit on Early Childhood, as one of the remarkable results of the project itself.

The two-phase project “Psychosocial and nutritional support to preschool-age children and their siblings in Gaza Strip”, was implemented in partnership with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, from September 2009 to June 2011 in 22 kindergartens in the southern governorates of Khan Younis and Rafah and realised thanks to the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) support. It aimed at addressing the needs of vulnerable children below 5 years of age and their families through an integrated approach combining psychosocial and nutritional activities.

The project has supported:

·         4,900 children attending 22 Kindergartens and their younger siblings (<5 years old);

·         7,000 family members of anaemic and/or malnourished children;

·         3,000 parents in the awareness program dedicated to both fathers and mothers;

·         160 teachers and directors in 22 Kindergartens;

The strategy adopted by the project focused on the support of the healthy growth and development of children by empowering caregivers to address children’s physical, emotional, cognitive, linguistic and social needs, promoting healthy life styles within their families and addressing iron deficiency anaemia and malnutrition - all based on a holistic vision of Early Childhood Development (ECD).

By the middle of the second phase of the intervention we realised that the material our team had gathered so far could provide a strong base to build upon, develop and share an ECD toolkit potentially suitable for the whole Gaza context, and, beyond that, a methodology potentially replicable and adaptable in crisis/post-crisis contexts working with similar communities.

All the material in this e-Toolkit is based on these experiences, and incorporates the international standards for Early Childhood Development, the collaboration between Terre des hommes and Palestinian Medical Relief Society and the other major stakeholders.

The toolkit would not have seen the light of day without the work of the project team – a mix of national educators, psychologists, counsellors and social workers – that has built, tested and revised the material coordinated by our psychosocial expert.

We have chosen to present our material as an e-Tool rather than as a set of printed manuals as it constitutes a work in progress and a living document whose framework may be adapted to contexts other than the Gaza Strip.

The e-Toolkit is made of 4 booklets:

·         Booklet 0 - Introduction to Working with Early Childhood (download here)

·         Booklet 1 - Monitoring Development in Preschool Children (download here)

·         Booklet 2 - Empowering Caregivers: Kindergarten Teachers, Preschool Children’s Educators, Animators (download here)

·         Booklet 3 - Empowering Caregivers: Raising Awareness in Mothers and Fathers (download here)

All booklets in zip format (download here)

Arabic version:

·         Booklet 0 - Introduction to Working with Early Childhood (download here)

·         Booklet 1 - Monitoring Development in Preschool Children (download here)

·         Booklet 2 - Empowering Caregivers: Kindergarten Teachers, Preschool Children’s Educators, Animators (download here)

·         Booklet 3 - Empowering Caregivers: Raising Awareness in Mothers and Fathers (download here)

All booklets in zip format (download here)

The material may be downloaded freely, on condition that it is referenced (as indicated in the cover) if and when it is used or quoted.

For further information please contact Piera Redaelli (p.redaelli@tdhitaly.org)