In Hargeisa, Somaliland, a follow up of ICDP based parenting sessions, education and family budgeting sessions was conducted in 2020. The participants were asked questions about what they understood and learnt from the ICDP based parenting and family budget sessions. The questions were based on the 9 sessions of the ICDP based parenting and 2 sessions on family budgeting.
20% of those who had received the parenting sessions were asked to answer the questions and over 80% of caregivers/ parents mentioned that the training improved their perception on parent child relationship, child education and gender.
Communities showed great willingness to change the cultural belief that ‘’Educating a girl is just a waste of resources ‘’ and now appreciate the concept that children both boys and girls have equal rights to learn.
The Child Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) project, which includes the ICDP parenting sessions, expanded to an additional location, to Baidoa, in South Central Somalia. The plan is to train 150 additional households in 2021 on ICDP based parenting.
We also plan to run refresher parenting sessions with parents/caregivers in Hargeisa, Somaliland.
Additionally, looking at the impact parenting sessions made at the community and household level, teachers of government schools in the project area started to show keen interest and requested to be included and trained on the ICDP based parenting sessions.
- Mukesh Lath, Senior Social Protection Advisor at Save the Children