Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication, and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Bernadette Jagger on Tuesday inaugurated four Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in the Kunene Region.
They include the Katutura, and Otuvero, Orotjirindi, and Puros centres located in Opuwo Urban, Opuwo Rural, and Epupa Constituencies respectively.
While inaugurating the ECDs, Jagger said ECD is essential for shaping and moulding children into becoming good citizens and can mitigate against many social ills.
She said evidence has demonstrated that investing in the early stages of life ensure that children have the necessary foundation of health and development which help in optimising a child’s ability to learn, develop social skills, build up immune deficiencies and become happy, healthy, and able child.
Investments in ECD yield tremendous returns on Government investments, in the long run, as children who are exposed to such services are more successful at school and are unlikely to drop out of school and involve in criminal activities, Jagger noted while urging parents and caregivers to bring their children to the newly constructed ECD centres.
She also called on various stakeholders to collectively ensure the safekeeping and maintenance of these centres to ensure that they serve generations to come.
Jagger informed the gathering that the facilities form part of the Ministry’s financial year 2019/2020, with the support from the European Union’s 11th European Development Fund aimed to ensure excellence in the provision of ECD Centre-Based Services in the region.
The ministry, she further said, has received support of more than N.dollars 6.1 million for the construction of a model and three standard ECD centres as well as the upgrading of four others across Kunene Region, namely, Katutura, Orotjirindi, Otuvero, Puros, Kamanjab, Yvonne Pickering Centre in Outjo, and Warmquelle centre in Sesfontein Constituency.
Speaking on behalf of the community, Luizinho Savuka Musungu, expressed gratitude saying the centres came at a prudent time, thus reducing the long distances at which children walk to schools.
She also promised that they (ECD centres) will thoroughly be cared for by the various communities in which they are operating.
Source: Namibia Press Agency
