Skillful Parenting Project

The challenge
Parents in West Kenya and North Tanzania are having a hard time. Urbanization means they can no longer take for granted that there will be family close by to rely on. Poverty forces some parents to work far from home, so they spend little or not enough time with their children. Diseases like AIDS sometimes leave children fending for themselves. For their safety they have to depend on foster parents, grandparents or older brothers and sisters. Different causes, the same result: a greater risk of neglect, physical abuse and misuse.

The changers
ICS collaborates with local partner organizations that make upbringing and good parenting a subject of discussion. Among parents, carers and children. They themselves have to define what they see as good parenting. Parents and carers have to specify what kind of support they need to raise their children properly and safely. The participating organizations combine their knowledge and experience via PAN. This enables them to learn from each other and exchange the best ways for working with parents. This (online) network also strives to get good parenting as a preventive programme on to the agenda of authorities in Kenya and Tanzania.

Partners in our Skillful Parenting programme are:

Kewacta (The Kenyan Woman and Child Transformation Agenda)
Aims at improving the living conditions of all children in Teso South District in Kenya.

Fascobi (Family Support Community-Based Initiatives)
Aims at improving the living conditions of children and women in the rural areas of Kenya.

Adilisha (Child, Youth Development and Family Preservation)
Aims at the development of young people and preservation of families. This group invests in better parenthood in Tanzania through capacity development, psychosocial support, research, supervision, advocacy and lobbying.

Also have a look at the website of this organisation.

MPDI (Monduli Pastoralist Development Initiative)
This development organisation focuses on the Masai in North Tanzania. The MPDI concentrates on education and care of pre-school children.

Mkombozi
This organisation centres on children specifically. It works in the Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions of Tanzania. Mkombozi helps vulnerable children through education, research and promotion of interests.

Also have a look at the website of this organisation.

PAN (Parenting in Africa Network)
This organisation was set up by ICS. It has now expanded into a network with no less than 37 affiliated organisations from all over South and East Africa.

Also have a look at the website of PAN.

The change
Beatrice Ongalo: ‘There are no official manuals or rules about the best way for parents to care for their children and protect them. Often it is a process of trial and error, learning from mistakes. Gradually parents get the hang of it, based on what they learn from others, or on what they feel is right.’ Parents and care providers who are having trouble achieving proper care often have to cope on their own. ICS wants to break through that with this new programme. ‘Parents have a great need to exchange ideas. It gives them new insights, they can organize things better together and they can learn from each other's experiences,’ according to Beatrice Ongalo. The organizations supported by ICS provide information to parents and care givers about different kinds of help and where they can get it, for instance in finding work, arranging welfare or child benefits. They also explain when it is necessary to call in medical help and what kind of help is sufficient in that case.

Some results thus far:
•    37 organizations from right across southern and eastern Africa are members of the Parenting in Africa Network (PAN).
•    Documentaries have been made about what parents and children and professionals like teachers think about good parenting. This in turn can give parents extra information and ideas.
•    All the communities where ICS is active have examined what children and parents currently think about good parenting and what they would like to learn more about.
•    The 6 local partner organizations employ social workers who are working on establishing and supporting parent groups.

Some concrete goals up to 2015:
•    In all 6 districts where ICS is active, there are local organizations arranging parenting projects.
•    In all 6 districts, parents and care providers know where they can get support in caring for and protecting their children if they need it.
•    In all 6 districts, 75% of the parents, care providers and children have a better understanding of what good parenting means for them and how they can work on it.
•    In 2015 PAN is an independently operating network of 70 actively participating organizations that jointly stand up for good parenting.