Parents have been urged to adopt the culture of taking children to Early Childhood Development and Family Centres.

The call was made during the pass out ceremony of 50 children and dozens of mothers who have been receiving special training at Nyagatovu Early Childhood Development and Family Centre (ECD&F) in Kayonza District, on Wednesday.

The facility that started operations in 2013 caters for children aged 0-6 years. It was started by the Imbuto Foundation in partnership with UNICEF, as part of the One-UN campaign in Rwanda.

The ECD&F centre is an archetype model for community-based services that promotes holistic development of the young child.

According to the founders, the environment offered by the centre has an important influence on child survival and development.

Speaking at the occasion, Ange Kaze of Imbuto Foundation said mothers and children had greatly benefitted from the services offered.

"With the establishment of the centre, we have managed to strengthen the capacities of mothers that provide effective care and inspire child learning…this has greatly improved the children’s chances of survival and led to best growth and development. With quality ECD services, children’s chances to flourish and attain an optimal level of development were greatly increased,” she said.

Kaze, however, lamented that few children were brought to the centre, urging parents to change their attitudes toward these centres.

"It is a free service centre for the community, but only half of the population needed turned up. The benefits are enormous…improvement of child literacy and numeracy skills and social and emotional development, etc are given. Women get skills that allow them to enter the workforce, increases family and community cohesion.”

Rose Tusabe, the coordinator of the centre told The New Times that the centre gave communities an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

"We are realising our targets in poverty reduction, reducing child and maternal mortality rate, eliminating malnutrition and improving access to quality education. The graduates demonstrated it today,” she said.

Daphrose Mukakarangwa, one of the mothers said the knowledge and skills would benefit the families.

"We expect to use the knowledge acquired to check GBV, malnutrition, poverty, etc. It is regrettable that we have been ignorant about many things,” she said.

ECDC policy and its strategic plan was adopted in Rwanda in 2011.

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