NGO to Train Parents on Early Child Development

The Coordinator, Aid to Life Outreach programme and Foundation for Montessori education in Nigeria, (FMEN) Mrs. Yinka Awobo-Pearse, has expressed the desire of her organisation to train 5,000 parents on early child development in 17 local governments in Lagos State.

Awobo-Pearse, who disclosed this at the weekend in Lagos, during the Aid to Life 3kilometre walkathon, said the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) had been very supportive especially in ensuring that the FMEN visits the 20 local governments.

She also noted that the organisation had been able to visit three LGAs and has 17 to go, adding that the walk was aimed at raising money to enable the organisation to complete its work in the local governments.

“So what we do is that we educate them on the things that they can do at home to support their children in areas such as movement and communication. We know that communication is central to the development of education for the child.

“You have to be able to communicate before you can learn and understand what they are teaching you. Also, independence and selfdiscipline. Those are the four pillars that support education; today we are raising awareness about our outreach programme where we go around educating parents,” she added.

She explained that FMEN had been able to impact parents in the areas of communication, movement, independence and self-discipline and also educated almost 500 parents.

According to him, “What we want to improve on is that we get more parents, because when we visit the local government areas, we have a fixed number because the location they offer us are very small, so we cannot reach a large audience and get more people because the more you send the message the more people are aware and they are able to understand what it is we are talking about.

“It cost N6000 to train one participant because we give them lunch and leaflets. We are looking at training over 5,000 for the 17 local government areas. “