Annual report for 2004/05 - Hemas Holdings, Ltd

Piyawara ProgrammeEarly Childhood Care &Development (ECCD)The Piyawara programme is the dedicated CSR mission forHemas Holdings in association with the Ministry of SocialWelfare.Our MissionTo create child friendly pre schools island widefor children between the ages of 3-5 years inorder to provide a sound foundation for lifelong learning.Training teachers became a primary focus last year. Hemastogether with the Ministry trained over 100 teachers fromeach district that houses Piyawara centres. It has beenemphasised by the participating teachers that theworkshops have been intensive and useful, spurring theteachers to employ different styles and methodologies inteaching. As a result of these workshops, some teachers haveinitiated the concept of ‘learning corners’ stimulating themind, senses and physical activities of children using propsbrought from children’s homes.From Birth to 5 years are the most critical years in the lifecycle of a child since it is in this period that the fullpotential of the child is established and foundation for thedevelopment of the human being is laid. The Pre school isthe first ever experience a child has with society and it isvital to have proper learning practices at this stage.Piyawara programme works in 4 stages:1. Providing a safe, caring, and conducive environment bydeveloping infrastructure and creating child friendlypreschools.2. Regularly training the care givers.3. Creating the right home environment through parentalawareness campaigns.Due recognition for pre school teachers is an important aspect.We are happy to note that some of the teachers from Piyawaracentres have been given due recognition by the localGovernment authorities. They have been given specialappointments to train and over look other pre schools in thearea.Parental awareness is a key to the success of this project. Achild needs a conducive environment in the home front thatis vital for the early years of growing. This year, Hemas4. Mobilising and empowering caregivers,Parents and society at large.By year 2004 we set up 9 ‘model pre schools’islandwide by developing infrastructure, playareas, providing educational equipment andtraining the teachers. These schools wereidentified by the Ministry of Social Welfare. Theyear under review saw the implementation ofstage 2, 3 & 4 .What we have done has created a learning culture for the children through wordsand deeds. It is not totally a classroom atmosphere. Through the training wereceived, which could be termed revolutionary because the entire teachingmethods have been transformed, the child is drawn into learning througheffective interaction. Even the building is attractive to a child and we have triedto make children enjoy school. “We learnt so much but have still not been ableto completely use everything that was taught to us. It was intensive that I amcontinuously looking for ways to improve my teaching methods to give mystudents an even better start in education.”- Binari Kokila Kumarasinghe Head Teacher, Polonnaruwa.26H E M A S H O L D I N G S L I M I T E D