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Amy Bala – Child Development
Specialist: Plant the Seed,
then Nurture it
I first began to work with GAB four years ago, when
I was asked to help deliver a storytelling project
for the GAB Foundation. The project was aimed at
teaching children in disadvantaged communities
about water conservation. I identified child care
trainers who were trained in storytelling, and a
partner to write and develop appropriate stories
for this project. The stories were translated into
the other three local languages. Through my
connections in the Department of Social Welfare
and NGOs, we were able to reach out to activity
centres, care centres and kindergartens. We
visited each community three times with one
module leading to the other. The project ran for
about two years.
The story telling project was a great way to teach
children and had great spill-over effects. Parents
told us that the children were convincing them to
conserve water and wanted them to come to the
storytelling.
Later on, I became involved with the GAB
Foundation English Programme. Tamil school
children have poor command of English as the
curriculum is taught mainly in their mother
tongue. My partner - who teaches early childhood
- and I redeveloped the curriculum, because it
was very academic in nature and examples were
not locally appropriate. We developed child
friendly, activity based lesson plans that linked
to and reinforced their school curriculum.
Trained facilitators now teach Standard 3 pupils
in five schools reaching out to 196 children.
Three schools are facilitated by teachers from
the school and two by college students. The
facilitators have great community spirit and
some of the sessions are carried out at weekends.
Most come from financially challenged families,
but have moved ahead and got their degrees, and
now they want to give back. The main challenge
in this project is to find facilitators who use
grammatically correct English because they also
come from the same education system. We train
the facilitators not only about their academic
approach to learning but also how to use more
visual and child friendly techniques.
In terms of impact, the Foundation wanted to
see academic results, but the results did not
drastically improve in the 6 months the project
was implemented. However, we found intangible
results such as increased confidence, improved
communication skills and enhanced motivation,
achieved through improved attendance at classes
and a better use of the English language.
The GAB Foundation is planting seeds and it
needs time to be nurtured. It is important to
strategise and plan a long-term commitment -
for example for five years. There is no immediate
need to expand the programme to more classes
but we need to think long-term and consider
the next stage. What will happen when these
children become teenagers and go to Form 1?
They will really need someone to help them in
adjusting to a mainstream school where they
often have a culture shock.
I also think that the Foundation could develop
a more holistic understanding of its impacts.
The children come from families where parental
involvement and academic support is weak.
Some are single parents, others work two jobs.
Changes and impact from our involvement need
to be seen more holistically rather than just
oriented around improving English. Changes
take time and impacts may come in different
forms. It will be good if GAB staff were trained
and involved so they see the investment GAB
Foundation is putting into the community and
understand the changes taking place.
Overall, I commend GAB for their sustained
commitment to give back to the communities.
Many other companies prefer one-off activities,
often in the form of donations. Although there
are always improvements to be made, it is great
that they have pledged to work with grassroots
communities.
About Amy Bala
Amy Bala is a Child Development Specialist,
and a social worker by training. She retired
from the civil service after working with the
Department of Social Welfare for 32 years,
and has extensive experience working
with children in difficult circumstances.
However, her focus has been and is still
in the area of early childhood, especially
in alternate Child Care. Amy is involved in
research, curriculum design and training of
child care providers and educators as well
as social workers. She constantly advocates
quality child care and child rights through
training and consultation with government
and non-governmental organisations. Amy
is also a court advisor in Children’s Court
Petaling Jaya.
G U I N N E S S A N C H O R B E R H A D
( 5 3 5 0 - X )
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