Save Our Souls Daycare & Preschool
Save Our Souls Day Care Center (for rehabilitation of malnourished children)
In 2005 the Nutrition Program was established to systematically identify the malnourished children at the Buduburam refugee camp, and to support them through a Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) with regular follow up, free medical care, as well as health and nutrition education to their families and the community.
The Day Care Project was established in October 2007, as an extension of the Nutrition Program, to provide nutritional support for the severely malnourished children, children that have been fed in SFP, but who have not been able to gain weight and grow out of the malnourished state, and children with special vulnerabilities. An additional objective was to allow caregivers a safe location to leave their children so the caregivers could engage in income generating activities (skills training or business endeavors) so as to improve their respective economic situations.
The Day Care project, through Point Hope, employs five caretakers, one caretaker assistant, one cook and her assistant and a Headmistress who is in charge of the daily activities of the project under the supervision and consultation with the coordinator of the Nutrition Program.
Save Our Souls (SOS) Day Care Center has three classes: The nutrition rehabilitation section (for long-term malnourished toddlers) and Kindergarten 1 and 2.
As the children finally recover from malnutrition, they are discharged into the academic sections of the Day Care (KG1, KG2).
Nutrition Rehabilitation Section (for toddlers):
- Approximately 40-50 children currently enrolled
- Children receive four daily on-site feedings, Monday to Friday, set to provide about 85 % of the daily energy requirements of the children
- Milk supplement
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Afternoon snack of fresh fruit
- All children attending the nutrition rehabilitation section are registered and followed by the Nutrition Program
Kindergarten 1 and 2 (KG1 and KG2):
- Each class has approximately 30 children daily
- All children in the academic sections (KG1 and KG2) receive two daily on-site feedings, Monday to Friday
- Both Kindergartens receive children that have either been discharged from the nutrition rehabilitation section, the SFP, or other vulnerable children in the community
Children in all classes of the Day Care receive physical and mental stimulation, and follow the pre-schooling curriculum of the Ghana Education Service.
Each child in this program receives the standard food ration given at the SFP, which includes food that is sent home each Friday to be eaten during the weekend.