Twenty-six women on Monday began their training at First Lady, Sandra Granger’s Early Childhood Development Workshop. The participants, upon completion of the three-component workshop, which includes CPR training, will receive certification from the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).
Granger said that while the workshop provides official certification, it can also help improve parent-child or caregiver-child relationships. “It’s very important to us as women to be able to stand on our feet economically because it has a bearing on our social and other interactions… That is why I have been… very firm in making sure these workshops… must be certified… It will teach you how to approach your child differently… Also, if you have a child with special needs… you can understand that the child is different and needs particular care. [They are] different, not stupid, not slow, not ‘hard ears’. Their minds just work differently,” she said.
Facilitator, Paulette Bollers encouraged the participants to take advantage of the positive difference they can make in the life of a child. “Research proves that a good foundation in early years makes a difference in adulthood and even gives the next generation a better start. While the brain is shaped by experiences at all phases of life, the experiences during the first years have an especially powerful role in influencing the developing brain.
Therefore, we must ensure that children’s early experiences are positive, that they have a secure foundation for development because what they learn during those crucial early years will affect them for the rest of their lives,” she said.
Participants from the workshop hailed from Buxton, Georgetown, communities along the West Bank, the East Coast, and Women Across Differences (WAD).
The workshop is conducted through a collaboration between the Office of the First Lady, the Social Protection Ministry, and the Guyana Red Cross Society.
