Early Childhood Development Initiative

The new year has begun by welcoming Justine Davies, an early childhood education specialist from New Zealand to our team at the Ba Futuru preschool.  With Justine’s experience in developing successful early childhood program’s, teacher training and parent education we are excited to expand our knowledge and services.  We have recently settled many new children into our early childhood programme.  The children are now comfortable with our regular routines such as hand washing and brushing their teeth on arrival and have regular healthy meals.

Q is a four year old girl who has sponsorship and has been attending Ba Futuru for two years.  Q has developed into a confident and capable student who has learnt to write all the children’s names in the class, she can also count to 50, understands English and can sound out each letter – she has learnt to read.  Q will be attending primary school at the end of the year and she is academically, physically, socially and emotionally prepared.

Ba Futuru focuses on the skills children need to succeed at school through holistic play-based programmes and responsive teachers.  Our priorities are supporting community needs through inviting contribution and empowering all learners, offering a sense of ownership and inclusion.  We are very excited to be implementing the new Timor-Leste early childhood curriculum.

Our preschool at Ba Futuru currently caters for over twenty students, half of them community children who need scholarships urgently.  These children are from very low income homes and at risk of neglect and abuse.  More than ever the children need scholarships so their education can continue.  Please sign up for a small monthly donation and give a child the right to education.  Thank you for support of the Timorese children.  

Links:

• preschool website

Thank you for your support. Now more than ever your support is needed to help low income children access life changing early childhood education opportunities.  This is because currently Ba Futuru does not have any major donor funds supporting our important Early Childhood Education programming.

The holiday season is the perfect time for giving, you can even print out certificates or email them through our online giving system, and give a donation in honor of your friends and family!

How often do you receive a present that you never use or find it difficult to buy for that someone who has everything?

We can help stop the clutter, by offering you the chance to give a gift that matters, one that supports children in Timor-Leste.

These last few months Ba Futuru’s preschool has been going strong. We have been concentrating on teaching literacy and numeracy through play with great success. Of the 10 Timorese children graduating next month and heading to primarily school, 90% are able to read and write at least one word, which is way beyond the national average of only 30% be able to read one word after the first grade of primary school.

For the moment our teacher trainings across Timor-Leste are on hold. However, we are supporting the government of Timor-Leste in training teachers on the new preschool curriculum in November and December. At the same time two of our core teacher trainers are getting their Certification IV, so that in the future they can provide accredited teacher training.

Two weeks ago we had a fantastic Halloween Party where the families of the children who attend the preschool got to know one another better in a fun filled environment. And just before that, the New Zealand Ambassador came for a visit to our preschool as they are considering providing some funding for renovating the kitchen and bathroom complex next to the school. 

It has been a productive and exciting time at Ba Futuru, but we need funds to keep supporting the low income children in the preschool. Please consider continuing to support our important work!

Links:

• Ba Futuru's support page

Ba Futuru’s Early Childhood Development Initiative Stage 2, ran for thirteen months between June of 2013 and June 2014 making a substantial impact in the area of improved Early Childhood Education across five districts of Timor-Leste.

Ba Futuru provided educational, child protection and first aid training for more than 100 educators impacting the lives of around 4,000 children.

The Early Childhood Education Facility (ECEF) provided quality education to young children and built the capacity of educators. Moreover the community outreach carried out as part of the ECDI provided education, support, educational materials, and health and hygiene training to members of the local community mostly from Golgota, Comoro and Dili.

Over the last year Ba Futuru’s Early Childhood Education Facility has had between 20 and 30 children attending each week. 25 children attend the facility 5 days a week – 60% of those children, 15, are low income or children at risk of abuse.

Parents from enrolled students: 

One mother reported– “I am really happy with the progress of my child. Even though she has only been going to Ba Futuru’s pre-school for one and a half weeks, I have seen lots of progress in her development. She’s making meaningful progress like becoming confident and more independent; she can now count up to 10 in English and can go to the toilet on her own. Thank you so much Ba Futuru for providing this great opportunity for my child to study in Ba Futuru’s Pre-school.” (Translated)

A single mother from the Golgota community reported – “In my point of view, Ba Futuru’s pre-school is a very good school which has lots of experienced national and international educators and educational resources. There are many things that my child has learned in Ba Futuru’s pre-school. She knows how to share her toys, behave more appropriately with her friends, ask questions politely, and covers her mouth when she’s coughing or sneezing.  I am very happy with the progress of her development.  I am very thankful to Ba Futuru for letting my child access your pre-school for free and also thankful to all the teachers for their help and their patience!” (Translated)

Ba Futuru needs your help to continue providing support to low income children so that they can receive quality early childhood education through Ba Futuru’s Early Childhood Education Facility. Now that the project donor support for Stage Two is finished, the children are now even more in need of scholarship support via our donations from Global Giving. 

Please continue to support this important work!

Ba Futuru's Early Childhood Development Initiative has made amazing progress both in our preschool and through our Teacher Training of preschool teachers and other early childhood educators.

In the last year and a half more than 150 educators have passed through our training programs representing more than 40 preschools in 5 districts of Timor-Leste. These trainings are designed to improve the quality of early childhood education across Timor-Leste, helping to make it more child-centred, focused on learning through play, and participatory. There are also elements of the training that focus on nutrition, first aid, child protection and positive discipline to equip teachers with essential skills for improving the lives of their students.

According to the 2009 World Bank Reading Assessment of Timor-Leste, more than 70 percent of students at the end of first grade could not read a single word in Tetun nor Portuguese (the two official languages). This research has informed our future plans, so in the next stage of our project we plan to include a larger focus on working with educators to develop their ability to teach literacy and numeracy.

We are also hoping to further develop our scholarship program for our preschool, in order that we can provide high quality education to more at-risk and low income children. So far we have been able to provide more than 20 low income Timorese children with a great start to their education by offering them early childhood education in our international preschool, which is used both to benefit children directly and also to mentor teachers after they receive training.

We thank you for your support of this important work, and if you have not already we encourage you to sign up for a small monthly donation to help us continue to provide low income scholarships for Timorese children.

Ba Futuru's Early Childhood Development Initiative has had an incredibly busy and productive few months, especially in the areas of Teacher Training and within our own Early Childhood Education Facility.

Since December, 64 educators have passed through our training programs, which are designed to improve the quality of early childhood education across Timor-Leste. These have included:

• 23 educators from Balibo, Maliana and Liquisa who received training in Early Childhood Education (ECE), First Aid and Child Protection (including positive discipline strategies).
• 16 nannies and caregivers received training in ECE, First Aid and Child Protection.
• 25 educators from Lospalos who received training in Child Protection and First Aid as well as tailored follow-up support and mentoring in ECE.

Furthermore, in April this year we are hoping to train a further 25-30 participants in ECE, First Aid and Child Protection.

Within our pre-school two community students graduated in December and we have welcomed 5 new disadvantaged students from the local community; bringing the current total of community students attending to 7. Ba Futuru is continually looking for support for scholarships for these students and your donations via GlobalGiving will continue to support their attendance.

The personal and academic development of these children will be supported through the provision of engaging activities and materials, while their physical health will be supported via nutritious meals and 'healthy habits' including daily teeth brushing and development of hand-washing habits.

We are also welcoming a new pre-school teacher, Beth Hutchinson from Australia. Beth has more than 30 years experience working in education and will no doubt contribute greatly to the development of early childhood education across Timor-Leste as well as in our facility.