“The Home-based Education Programme (HBEP) was introduced to Mfuwe, Zambia by the Time + Tide Foundation (TTF) in 2016 as an intervention to help children with developmental differences, none of whom were receiving adequate support. The model of the programme is to recruit and train compassionate members of the Kakumbi and Mnkhanya Chiefdoms of Mfuwe as volunteer caregivers, equipping them with the skills to oversee developmental exercises for children with a variety of conditions. The primary conditions of children on the programme are cerebral palsy, autism, down syndrome, hydrocephalus, microcephalus, epilepsy, bowed legs, and knocked knees. The caregivers are then assigned to one child each and visit that child at his or her home once per week and work together with the child’s primary guardian on exercises and activities to stimulate the child’s development. The caregiver returns each week to track the progress and suggest new activities, with specific developmental targets. All caregivers come together at the end of each month to report on the progress of their respective children and collaboratively discuss challenges. The TTF team separately monitors each child by visiting households once per month to record child progress. Each child is tracked against specific developmental metrics, with the relevance of each metric dependent on the child’s condition and age. When the child reaches his or her developmental threshold, he or she becomes a candidate to graduate from the programme. Graduation also depends on the knowledge and commitment of the child’s primary guardian, with the objective that most children are enrolled into formal schools before graduation. A decision for a child to graduate is made when the TTF team assess that: a) the child has reached a developmental threshold and b) the primary guardian is knowledgeable on the causes and treatment of the condition and, most importantly, willing to take responsibility for the child’s developmental care going forward.”
“The Home-based Education Programme (HBEP) served 132 children across 85 villages in 2022. These villages are located throughout two of the six chiefdoms that comprise the Mambwe District: Kakumbi Chiefdom and Mnkhanya Chiefdom. Both chiefdoms form part of the larger Mambwe District, in the Eastern Province of Zambia. The assessment is of the value experienced by the 2022 stakeholders over the entirety of their involvement in / interaction with the HBEP. The 2022 stakeholders interacted with the HBEP for a period of one to seven years, with the total, cumulative value experienced by each stakeholder group assessed. This ‘snapshot in time’ approach was taken because it was deemed too challenging to ask the stakeholders to separate the value by year of involvement, and it was deemed too subjective for the practitioner to try to make these professional judgements. Instead, the investment figures include amounts from prior years (2016 through 2021) that were relevant to the 2022 stakeholders and all of the investment from the year 2022.”
