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Simone Kirpal
problems with a little help. The POP program has been received enthusiastically by thousands of parents, acknowledging their growth in parenting skills and self-confidence. Many have become successful entrepreneurs in making crafts and other products while staying home to care for their children. ECCE Program
SERVOL has established and supervises a national ECCE program that involves 160 centers and more than 300 teachers serving almost 5,000 children ages 2.5–5 years. All teachers have been carefully trained, and most have received an Early Childhood Teachers’ Certificate validated by Oxford University. Like POP, this program is guided by SERVOL’s belief that “what goes on in the home is more important than what goes on in the school.” A high-quality early childhood education that is community-based, parent-oriented, and administered by trained teachers is one of the most important ways to bring about desirable, fundamental change in poverty situations. The ECCE program extends empowerment from the child and parents (emphasized in the POP program) to the community and, importantly, encourages and permits teachers to influence parents’ childrearing practices. The program is intended to have a cumulative effect on parental practices over time. The community actively participates in the operation of the centers, which are managed by the village board of education. Junior Life Center Program
With few exceptions, all children enter primary school in Trinidad and Tobago (ages 5–12). However, only 80 percent of the 30,000 children who attend and complete primary school enter secondary school. The vast majority of this large number of children who drop out come from poverty areas and are so “turned off” by the traditional educational system that special approaches are needed to rekindle their hope. SERVOL’s Junior Life Center (JLC) program offers more than 6,000 children ages 13–16 an innovative curriculum designed to