Program Profile
 Our Partner
Latest Results
THROUGH THE EYES OF CHILDREN
Program Status
• Previous Program, The Art and Education Program, ended December 2003.
• New Program, Through the Eyes of Children launched January 2004 and will run through December 2005.
• The Program will be self-sustaining by the end of 2005.
Critical Needs
Belo Horizonte is the third largest city in Brazil at over 5 million people and it is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Urban expansion has resulted in the spread of favelas (slums) and poverty is on the rise. Community day care centres in urban Belo Horizonte have been described as "parking lots" for children. It is all too common to find rows of cribs full of babies and toddlers who spend most of their days unstimulated; older children are put through motions of preschool activities, and there is little room dedicated to play or time for outdoor play. Educators view their role as that of basic caregivers (feeding and changing diapers) to children who must conform to adult priorities. The opportunity for children to benefit developmentally from their experiences in the centres did not exist before the Art and Education Project . MLPC, after years of advocacy work for better access to child care and funding, realized that they could awaken an interest and foster a change in the quality of care by providing training for day care workers in early childhood education based on the understanding of children as individuals with needs and rights. The training program begun under Pueblito's previous Program started a process of learning and change that did not reach sustainability by the end of 2003 and will require a final phase of work to that end. The planned 41 community crèches that will ultimately benefit from our program are scattered throughout the vast city across poor and extremely marginalized neighbourhoods.
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Program Description
The new program Through the Eyes of Children, will focus on multiplying the training of the completed Art and Education Project to 20 new community crèches while professionally supporting the implementation of the previous training in the original 21 crèches. While the target of the training content was for children 0-3 years old, much of the theory, related concepts, and extensions of activities can be applied to children 4-6 years old. The formal training of the previous project will be turned into a series of replicable workshops that can be used for training purposes benefiting many new groups of pedagogic coordinators who lead the teams of educators in their crèches. The focus on documenting and piloting the replication process are the key activities which will ensure the project's sustainability and allow Pueblito and MLPC to successfully conclude the partnership. Graduated members of the first training group will become trainers in the multiplication workshops strengthening the capacity of MLPC as a pedagogic resource center. Building on lessons learned in the previous project new activities will seek to bridge the gap between pedagogic and administrative coordinators as well as become more inclusive of families. The planned activities for the new project include:
- caregiver workshops and support for the pedagogical coordinators and administrators of 41 crèches in arts-based training; includes the introduction into the training of a new focus on improving the relationship between crèches and families
- production of a training manual, development and testing of training kits to be used in the multiplication of the project
- establishment and functioning of the MLPC Training and Documentation Centre through the above mentioned activities
In 2006 after the program closes Pueblito will undertake an outcome study to publish the results of the pedagogical training program implemented between 2000 and 2005. Pueblito will seek academic partners for expertise and other grants to complement the $ 20,000 seed money that Pueblito will provide.
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LATEST RESULTS
Brazil – Through the Eyes of Children
January – June 2004
Through the Eyes of Children
When the 21 pedagogic coordinators who had completed the Art and Education training program in 2003 returned to their crèches after summer vacation, they continued to implement their learning by transforming the physical environments of their centres, as well as sharing new knowledge with their staff. These same coordinators also participated in 4 exchange visits to other centres in the program to see how different centres were implementing the concepts. As a group they have come together twice in the past six months to form a study group to reinforce their learning. They are now helping to produce training material for the new group of 2004 trainees.
Our local partners at MLPC are now delivering the training program to the first group of 12 new pedagogic coordinators from the MLPC network. These twelve coordinators have attended two training sessions in March and May where they were introduced to the fundamental concepts of  this new approach to child care and education: the multiple intelligences of Howard Gardner and the use of art to work with young children. This second group of trainees is benefiting from the small group interactions b using the training methodology which is very hands-on and moves quickly from theory to practice. In the May session, the trainees learned about the use of observation, and the creation of portfolios. To support the training, one of the project coordinators makes regular visits to the crèches to assist them with the implementation of these new concepts. The first group of trainees will include their new learning in their official pedagogical proposals for each crèche.
In June, an ECE specialist and member of Pueblito’s Latin American Program Committee traveled to Brazil to continue building our partners’ capacity by working on the training modules, reviewing theory and practice and also working on the next phase of learning which is the family’s involvement in the crèches.
Community Outreach
In the newly built Training and Resource Centre, the process of cataloguing MLPC resources has begun along with the preparations of training modules which will form the core of the training program. Recent graduates from the Art and Education Project will create the training materials.
A Special Fundraising and Marketing Project
In January MLPC’s fundraising and marketing coordinator traveled to Toronto to train intensively for a week with Pueblito’s Director of Development and Community Relations. During this time MLPC’s first marketing plan was created to guide activities for the next year. MLPC has created its own promotional brochure to share with the public and they are beginning a telemarketing campaign to get the work out about their important work and raise funds to support it.
PAST RESULTS
OUR PARTNER
MLPC (Movement for the Promotion of Child Care Centres) is an umbrella organization that represents 113 community crèches (child care centres) in Belo Horizonte providing services to over 15,000 children under the age of six in the poor neighbourhoods of that city. Through its advocacy work MLPC has successfully lobbied the municipal government to provide financial support for the crèches. It has also successfully intervened with the Brazilian federal government to shape new policies for Early Childhood Development (ECD). MLPC has been a leader in the movement for child care centres in Brazil for the last 23 years and has been a Pueblito partner for 15 years. Over the last three years the Pueblito-MLPC partnership has focused on capacity building through the Art and Education Project by providing training in ECD to pedagogic coordinators and educators in the community crèches using a train-the-trainer approach facilitated by experts from Ryerson University, Toronto, the third partner in that relationship from 2000-2003.
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Capacity Building
The final phase of capacity building in this 15 year partnership will build on the previous technology transfer project. The review of concepts from the previous project will be capacity building as will the production of resources based on that training to create a training package. Additionally, MLPC's expertise in early childhood theory for young children and their successful advocacy work will be used as a capacity building resource for other Pueblito partners.
Additionally, from 2001-2003 Pueblito began providing capacity building in the form of fundraising support. Expectations have not yet been met and the 2002 CIDA evaluation underlined the need to reconsider the state of this initiative. With a new Director of Development in place at Pueblito, capacity building in this area will be provided to MLPC with the objective of completing that support by the end of 2005 when Pueblito completes its work in Brazil.
Sustainability
In addition to the training of new pedagogical leaders and professionals in the affiliated crèches, MLPC will be able to count on the Training and Documentation Centre with a group of its own qualified professionals to provide and sell its services. These services will help ensure the sustainability of the previous Art and Education Project as well as allow MLPC to generate revenue from private day care centres who purchase the training services. The MLPC fundraiser will be fully trained to continue fundraising and seeking grants to ensure the financial security of MLPC and no longer be heavily dependent on international funding. The achievement of these objectives will allow MLPC to grow as an organization and allow Pueblito to bring to a close that partnership and focus on countries and communities of greater need.
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