Just fresh from assisting the schools in Anguilla, as part of the recovery response to Hurricane Irma, UNICEF began a one-week training workshop at the Anguilla Community College on Monday, November 6.
The UNICEF facilitator, Ms. Denise Roberta, said the training was for early childhood practitioners working in the health service, the social development sector and education, impacting the lives of children up to five years old.
She continued: “Within the already very strong early childhood development programme in Anguilla, the practitioners will be learning more about responsive care-giving and how to help families to nurture their children, given this time of post disaster. It is very important for the psychosocial development of families because as care givers – mothers, fathers, grandparents and whoever – it will help them to bond, communicate and play better with their children. It will help the family to process what has happened and to move forward with a sense of hope and wellbeing.”
Ms. Roberto added: “Part of the training will be some theory, but the practitioners will also be going out on three different days, first – to day care centres then to schools, the polyclinic and, hopefully, the hospital. The reason is to work with families and children as they are, using home-made toys or whatever is available.”
According to a UNICEF report, approximately 3,778 children under 18 years old in Anguilla were affected by the impact of Hurricane Irma with approximately 1,058 of them being boys and girls under five years old.
In terms of response, UNICEF’s role is to support the Government and other partners to return the lives of children and adolescents to as close to normalcy as possible.
Among UNICEF’s priorities are: water, sanitation and hygiene promotion; protection for the most vulnerable children and adolescents through the establishment of safe places; psychosocial support to the most affected children and adolescents; re-establish the education system, including early childhood development services, as the main protective environment; participation and engagement of families and children and adolescents in the recovery efforts; and further recovery planning to include social protection for the most vulnerable.
