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Billboards with early childhood education, care messages unveiled |26 November 2019

Billboards with early childhood education, care messages unveiled

Guests posing next to a newly unveiled billboard during the ceremony on Friday (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

A series of pertinent messages relating to early childhood development, education, care and parenting displayed on colorful and attractive billboards featuring children, have been unveiled and placed in strategic public locations in Victoria and on Praslin.

An initiative of the Institute of Early Childhood and Development (IECD) as part of its Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) awareness campaign, the messages were unveiled in a short ceremony at Roche Caiman on Friday afternoon in the presence of Dr Erna Athanasius, the ambassador for women and children, among other guests. The vice-chairperson of the IECD board, Sonia Mancienne, the chief executive of the IECD Shirley Choppy and Walter Labrosse, the general manager of Laxmambhai – the company which has partly sponsored the project, unveiled one of the billboards and its message.

The unveiling of the billboard messages was organised to coincide with the Universal Children’s Day and the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child both commemorated on November 20 as well as to celebrate the IECD’s milestone achievement and recognition as a Global Category II Centre under the auspices of the Unesco.

This has placed Seychelles, a small island state, as a global leader in early childhood care and development.

In her remarks before the unveiling of the messages, Mrs Choppy highlighted the importance of such an achievement for Seychelles.

“Seychelles acceded to the global recognition by a unanimous endorsement on November 15 this year at the 40th session of the Unesco general conference. This is over and above the recognition of the IECD as the International Bureau of Education of the Unesco best practice hub for Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) and represents a much higher and institutionally more sustainable recognition,” Mrs Choppy stated.

As a Global Category II Centre, the IECD will provide global intellectual and operational leadership as well as capacity-building for Unesco member states to advance the development of ECCE, Mrs Choppy said.

Mrs Choppy expressed her pride for this great milestone achievement for Seychelles and thanked the IECD team, ECCE sectors and all their partners and supporters for their hard work, relentless effort, commitment, engagement and different contributions.

Mrs Choppy also thanked Laxmambhai for its immeasurable assistance and support which she said is testimony of its firm belief in the important work the IECD and support for the great national effort and emphasis being placed on early childhood development.

 

Marie-Anne Lepathy

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