Footprints Project

A total of
13009
Travelers
donated
$28001.25
(100% funded)
to help improve
Education
in
Vanuatu

Program background

Children attending quality preschools/kindergartens have been shown to benefit significantly in terms of school readiness and achievement. This is particularly true for children living in under-resourced areas of the world.

The program run by Save the Children seeks to increase the capacity of childhood care and education staff in Vanuatu and provide quality learning materials which meet the development needs of children in order to improve their readiness for school.

Project Details

To achieve this goal, the program has developed and produced the second edition of the Nabunga Manua Eli Jaelhud Edukesen Magasin; a biannual magazine written in the national ‘Bislama’ language. The magazine includes exercises that can be used in a range of development areas, including numeracy and literacy.

The project fits into Save the Children’s larger Education Strategy; complementing construction, training and parental awareness activities also being carried out by the organisation.

Development of the second edition of the magazine began with assessment and review of the first edition launched in May 2013. Consultation meetings were held with key stakeholders, including the National Co-ordinator for Early Childhood Care and Education, the Ministry of Education and the President of Vanuatu Eli Jaelhud Asosiasen, to review the proposed contents of the new issue. Save the Children’s Early Childhood Care and Development Project Officer spent weeks in consultation with illustrators, translators, graphic designers and printers to ensure the issue achieved it’s purposes and was of the highest possible quality.

The magazine includes games, songs, poems, health & hygiene cultural stories, child protection activities and a program to encourage family activities. Its core themes are literacy and numeracy, supporting the Ministry of Education’s focus on these learning areas for the next three years.

The front and back cover images of the edition were selected following a competition held across six provinces of Vanuatu. The competition had a total of 73 paintings submitted and Mele Kindi, located in peri-urban Port Vila, had their entry chosen for the front cover placement. Etariu Kindi, located in southeast Efate, submitted the painting chosen for the back cover image.

Key outcomes

The new edition of Nabunga Manua Eli Jaelhud Edukesen Magasin has been widely embraced by teachers, children and their families as a valuable learning tool and resource for children in the early learning age group.

Recognised outcomes from the project include:

Children have realised that eating chips (like sweets) can ruin their teeth and they are now passing this information to their friends and caregivers. One teacher in particular has reported that the children are enthusiastic about the “twisty song” which delivers the above message. This has resulted in a notable increase in healthier foods being brought for lunch at the schools
The children are also enthusiastic about the alphabet activity and teachers report this has helped children to catch up with alphabet identification
Children have begun to ask lots of questions surrounding the activities in the magazine which aid their development in both literacy and numerical skills
The magazine has seen use outside of school, particularly for its family activities. Parents are starting to have a greater understanding of the importance of hygiene

Finally, one teacher has reported that parents are now taking more pride in the way they dress their children for school, with an increase in children coming to class with clean clothes where previously this was not the case. The teacher says this has had a significant impact on the children's confidence at school.