Thirteen years ago, Jeanette Swartbooi, 38, relocated to Sossusvlei, in the middle of the Namib Desert. This move was in response to a breakthrough in employment opportunities in the booming tourism industry. The testimony of her life today demonstrates the paradox of how this employment opportunity has resulted in her children being excluded from essential social services such as schools, health facilities and even shops.
With a heavy heart, Jeanette had to send her eldest son, Tangeni, off to boarding school at the age of six, only seeing him once every three months during holidays. For the last seven years, a 180 km stretch of a dirt road, which is not serviced by public transport, has separated Jeanette and Tangeni.
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| © UNICEF Namibia/2016/Mutseyekwa |
| Inside one of the colourful classrooms at the Little Bugs ECD centre. The centre holds classes for 28 children, aged 3-8 years. |
“It is never easy for a mother to send her six-year-old into boarding school, but I had no choice because there are no schools in the desert,” says the mother of four, who believes living in an isolated community has deprived her of the chance to nurture and influence Tangeni’s academic, social and physical growth.
As Jeanette continues to monitor Tangeni’s progress from a distance, fortunes are turning for Tangeni’s siblings, Freddie and Rudolf. An Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre has opened up its doors in Sossusvlei, ushering in hope that children here will one day overcome life’s adversities and achieve great academic and social excellence.
Bright colours decorate Little Bugs ECD centre – a welcome contrast to the ashen and sandy setting of Sossusvlei, and symbolic of the nurturing experiences, which have become a part of life for the 28 children, aged 3-8 years, who attend the centre.
Initially set up as a family establishment, Little Bugs ECD centre is today one of five regionally diverse centres supported by UNICEF to strengthen the implementation of quality pro-poor integrated ECD programmes.
Throughout Namibia, issues of poverty, distances from school and a host of other social and economic inequities often prevent children from accessing and enjoying the benefits of early learning. School dropout and retention rates are worrying, with 11 per cent of primary school aged children out of school. According to the 2011 Population and Housing Census, only 13 per cent of children between the ages of 0 and 4 years old have passed through an ECD programme.
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| © UNICEF Namibia/2016/Mutseyekwa |
| Jeanette at home with three of her four children: Freddie, Rudolf and Rosaline. Her eldest son, Tangeni, has been going to boarding school since the age of 6. Until Little Bugs, sending children away was the only schooling option available. |
“Poverty and some of the many inequities within our communities have long prevented Namibia’s children from enjoying the benefits of integrated Early Childhood Development,” says UNICEF Representative, Micaela Marques de Sousa. “These model centres therefore show the possibilities and importance of breaking barriers and providing a good start to life for every child, irrespective of their geographic, social or economic background.”
By offering professional early learning, health, nutritional, child protection and social experiences to these children from disadvantaged and often disengaged communities, the model centres are pivotal in UNICEF’s work towards re-positioning ECD services in Namibia, including the importance of meaningful parental involvement for a child’s holistic development.
Little Bugs ECD centre regularly engages with parents, encouraging them to boost their parenting skills, so that the lessons adopted at the centre do not fade away when the children go back home. For Jeannette, the lessons about cultivating a vegetable garden, also supported through UNICEF, are helping her overcome the struggle of relying on commercial food products when shops are too far away.
Jeanette hopes that the precedent set by Little Bugs ECD will give impetus to future education and social interventions in Sossusvlei, so that the foundations built for the family remain unshaken.
Source: UNICEF
