Building on Peoples Strengths, Samburu Loipi Project in Kenya

Presented at Pastoralism and Poverty Reduction in East Africa: A Policy Research Conference Nairobi, 27-28 June 2006
Tanja van de Linde, Save the Children USA and Stephen Lenaiyasa, Christian Childrens Fund

Food for Thought

Between 25-40 million children of school age live in nomadic pastoralist societies Only 10-50% attend school 15-25 million out of the 100 million out of school children are from nomadic pastoralist communities (Oxfam Dec. 2005)
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More food for thought

The real question is how to use the available funds wisely. The best evidence supports the policy prescription: Invest in the very young James J. Heckman PhD, Nobel Laureate in Economic Science 2000.

Loipi Project Design

The project was designed by Christian Childrens Fund with financial and technical support from the Bernard van Leer Foundation CCF was already working in Samburu District focusing on health, food security, water and primary education The loipi model is now being implemented in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda (SC-Norway) Ethiopia, Nigeria and Namibia

THE SAMBURU PEOPLE

Traditional child rearing practices that the project built on: Grandmothers as caregivers great value on children as a source of wealth and continuity for the community. Use of home based care centers popularly known as loipi where feeding, growth monitoring, using beads, playing, story telling, singing, role play took place

 Community participation and ownership Holistic child development (cognitive, social, emotional, physical) Traditional childcare practices combined with modern care and wellbeing ideas Use of locally available materials the small-scale, replicable model of the loipi Partnership of NGO innovation with government health, education and welfare services Use of loipi as focal points for nutrition, health and wider community education Responsiveness to specific situations in a local context ECD programs can influence the formal schooling system.
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Universal concepts, local context

Positive effects of the Loipi on childrens development Based on theories of constructivism and social learning Belief in children constructing own knowledge by interacting with materials, siblings and adults Learning through modelling and imitation

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Positive effects of the Loipi on childrens development

Language acquisition through story telling, songs, poems, tongue-twisters and riddles mental development through stimulation and play activities valuing and participating in their rich cultural heritage Children develop to their full potential through accessing the health and nutrition services delivered through the loipi Children with special needs are more readily identified and provided access to such extra care and support as is available
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LESSONS LEARNT
Relevant partnership provides opportunities for holistic interventions Integration with other CCF existing programs strengthens the projects impact. Continuous training of parents and other project implementers leads to sustainability Cultural strengths of the communities should be identified and appropriately utilized in programs. Fathers participation in ECD needs to be enhanced Motivation through training opportunities and project exchange visits to volunteer parents is important.
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Sustainability of the loipi programme

The loipi programme is based on traditional approaches rather than being an alien intrusion Communities benefit in terms of childrens health, development and education materials used in the loipi are locally made and produced, using community labour and expertise Caregivers are community members concept and activities of the loipi are reasonably compatible with mobility of the community Community members are trained and supported to carry out activities such as growth monitoring and health promotion.
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Sustainability of the loipi programme

Complementary inputs from a range of bodies including governmental education and health sector offices, CBOs and UN agencies, spread the institutional support beyond the catalytic role of CCF Income generation and food-security activities complement the ECD activities Peer-to-peer sharing of ideas and experience horizontally among loipi is a stronger and more valid alternative to isolated innovations with vertical support between a community and the supporting CBO

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Points challenging sustainability

Resources that are beyond the scope of the communities to provide are required to run the loipi programme in its full form and in the longer term (including technical guidance and organisation, funds for incentives and some materials and food) Change is a slow process, and the results are difficult to entrench once external support has been removed Poverty remains a predominant contextual factor exerting pressure against community and organisational persistence in the innovation

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Points challenging sustainability

Deterioration of loipi play apparatus and buildings through weathering is rapid, requiring constant renovation Parents associate the loipi programme with the CCF-supported project, and may be dependent on the focal point and leadership of an NGO Motivation to work on a voluntary basis, by caregivers, other community members and youth volunteers, may have a finite duration Land and forestry resources (for loipi sites and apparatus, respectively) are in short supply and need to be negotiated with local authorities.

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Way Forward
The Loipi programme has excellent potential for replication in other regions, assuming that the underlying concept is distilled and disseminated and the locally-specific components of the design are replaced by what will work in the communities and settings where the approach is to take root.
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What is replicable?
the important role of grandmothers in childcare valuing and respecting children care as a community responsibility making a special place for children to gather which is secure and enhancing to their daily experience and accessible to all the community social reconstruction and wider community development as a co-commitment of ECD incorporation of health and nutrition support into the ECD programme, based at the loipi sites preparation of children for their progression into formal pre-primary or primary education whilst avoiding the distortion of ECD into accelerated commencement of primary education.
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Conclusion
The ECD loipi program improves pastoralist society through: Focus on the crucial and often overlooked early years Improving the subsequent academic performance of students in primary school Non-educational improvements to society as a whole reducing gender and income inequalities

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