TWO new Early Childhood Education (ECE) Centres have officially opened last week in the Western Province.
This new education centres will allow for more than than eighty children from Ilangana and Kinamara communities to gain access to ECE or kindy learning centres.
Save the Children helped to construct the centres with funds coming from the Bolton Group (Italy) of which Soltuna is a subsidiary.
The buildings have both been inspected and approved for use by the Western Province Building Inspector.
The official opening ceremonies took place on Thursday 5th March at Ilangana and Friday 6th at Kinamara.
There is a current enrolment of twenty-one children at the Ilangana ECE Centre and sixty-six children at Kinamara ECE Centre.
Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development Dr Franco Rodie, and Save the Children’s Country Director Shiv Nair, and Western Provincial Government representatives attended the official ceremony as VIP guests at Ilangana.
Mr Nair in his speech at the opening ceremony of Ilangana stated that “Save the Children believes in taking Family Centred approach to Early Childhood Education and will continue to work with Parents and Community Leaders to lead the process of supporting Early Childhood Programs in their respective communities. Save the Children strongly believes that communities can also protect their young children through an effective ECE Program.”
The opening ceremony at Kinamara was attended by Save the Children staff and Western Provincial Government representatives.
The construction of the ECE centres in Ilangana and Kinamara is part of Save the Children’s Early Childhood Care Education project, funded by the Bolton Group.
This Project aims to implement high quality Early Childhood Education for girls and boys, particularly the hardest to reach, and incorporates a holistic understanding of children’s learning needs, rights and community participation through the development and strengthening of Community Education Committees or school boards, ECE Centre construction and the resourcing of ECE Centres.
Save the Children Australia has been working in the Solomon Islands since 1986in the areas Education, Health, Child Protection, Emergencies/ Disaster Risk Reduction and Livelihoods.
Save the Children works at community, provincial and national levels to support and strive for the attainment of children and young people’s rights. National operations are based in Honiara and provincial offices are located in Western, Choiseul and Malaita provinces.
