CPA’s toddlers’ reading programme taken to Kwakwani and Ituni

─ aim is to encourage parents to read to their children

─ bookshelf handed over to Kwakwani and Ituni health centres

DPI, Guyana, Friday, October 12, 2018

The children from birth to three years old, of Kwakwani and Ituni, Region Ten are the latest target of the Childcare and Protection Agency’s (CPA) toddler reading programme, to health centres across the country.

The programme, which is outfitting health facilities with bookshelves filled with reading materials was recently taken to the Kwakwani and Ituni Health Centres with the aim of encouraging parents to read to their children.

The bookshelf that was handed over to the Kwakwani Health Centre.

The bookshelf that was handed over to the Ituni Health Centre. [From left] Registration and License Officers of Region Ten, Daunne McFarlane and Melissa Chapman, Midwife at Ituni Health Centre, Ms. Pluck, and Senior Child Protection Officer of Sub-region Two, Cameal Jeffrey.

Registration and Licensed Officer, Melissa Chapman noted that reading is essential to a child’s development and the presence of such materials gives parents the responsibility to do so when they visit the clinic for postnatal services.

“When they visit the health centres, they can sit and read to their children while they wait for them to be vaccinated or get weighed and then they will be encouraged to read to them at home, once the process has started,” Chapman said.

This is not the first time CPA has taken the reading intervention to the region. The programme was first rolled out at the One Mile Health Centre in Linden.

Chapman noted that that CPA Region Ten has not forgotten the riverain and outlying areas as there is a greater need in these communities, given the absence of libraries and modern technology.

The programme was initiated at the East Ruimveldt Health Centre and is planned to be established at 361 health centres across Guyana.

Chapman is encouraging the health centres to initiate a programme to have fathers involved as well.

The public is asked to donate books to the bookshelf that has been made available.

Story and Images: Vanessa Braithwaite.