Roger Federer Foundation donates 3, 000 tablets for ECD promotion in Malawi
The Roger Federer Foundation has 3, 000 early learning kiosks to the Malawi Government for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) mentors at DAPP Teacher Training College in Dowa district.
The donation has been made through ActionAid Malawi, Association of ECD in Malawi and Synod of Livingstonia.
The 3,000 tablets were accompanied by 3,000 solar kits and 3,000 batteries and they were donated to 3,000 mentors of the ECCE in three districts of the country.
Speaking after the handover ceremony, the Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati, said the tablets will provide all the content a caregiver needs to provide their children with quality preschool education.
Kaliati said the tablets comprise the knowhow app, which is a comprehensive course on early learning, which is self-guided to be done in learning groups with audio, videos and an African storybook attached to it.
She said the tablets comprise the child steps app, which is an important tool to monitor children’s development in a continuous manner and the App is activity based and also includes an attendance register, hence caregivers get guidance for their lessons.
“You will also find on the Early Learning Kiosk a Toolbox with an App on how to build a natural playground with locally available material together with the community as well as how to make toys and learning material and both are essential for an age appropriate learning environment,” Kaliati added.
She appealed to the mentors who have received the tablets to use the tablets for the intended purpose, warning that anyone found selling the tablets will be arrested because the tablets are government’s property.
In his speech, Roger Federer, who is founder and president of the Roger Federer Foundation, said the foundation made the donation because the foundation believes that Malawian children are the future of the country and investing in their early education is investing in the better future of the country.
He said, all children in Malawi deserve access to quality ECCE as it is defined in the sustainable development goal 4.2 hence investing in early education is investing into the long term development of the country.
One of the beneficiaries, Fyness Dickson Phiri of Yankho ECD in the area of Traditional Authority Dambe in Mchinji district applauded the foundation for the gesture, saying it will help ease their work in the ECD centres.
However, Phiri promised and encouraged fellow mentors to use the tablets for the intended purpose before appealing to the foundation to extend the gesture to other mentors in the country, saying that this will help much in the provision of quality education in the ECD centres across the country.
She further appealed to the government to consider providing them with bicycles to ease mobility challenges which most mentors face when travelling to and from the ECD centres and also consider giving the honoraria as part of motivating them in their work.
Roger Federer Foundation is a charitable Swiss grant making organisation which aims to promote children living in poverty in Southern Africa and Switzerland and the foundation has been working in Malawi since 2011 and invested already USD 18 million into education in the country.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
This guys Federer, stands out from most of these sports super stars. I know some do other charitable works in other areas but early child learning is such an important investment any nation could wish for, Roger so far? Roger that !