Senglea council pioneers family literacy programmes

This summer the children of Senglea were able to make a novel choice on how to spend a few hours each week. Thanks to an initiative of Senglea council, the active contribution of the Foundation for Educational Services (FES) and a private sponsorship, they could attend a Family Literacy Summer Club.

The local council's premises hosted the sessions every Wednesday and Friday from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and a Community Literacy Outreach programme was held every Friday from 7.30 to 9 p.m. at the Senglea marina.

This is the first time in Malta that a community-based initiative in family literacy of this kind has been undertaken. This could only come about through a strong synergy between leading protagonists, who ensured the success of the programme, which started on Wednesday, July 16, and comes to an end on Friday.

It received the encouragement and support of mayor Joe Casha and the Senglea council, and was held thanks to the many hardworking women and youth volunteers. The overwhelming response of the families in Senglea ensured an excellent outcome.

Sub Committee launches activities

Set up last May, the council's Education Sub Committee is made up of a volunteer group of women, including Irene Purkiss, Rita Casaletto, Anna Abela and Charmaine Camilleri, with Fr Harry Formosa and Fr Herbert Friggieri. Vanessa Caruana serves as the summer club's co-ordinator and I am the chairperson of the Education Sub Committee.

We met several times before coming to the conclusion that a literacy programme for the children of Senglea during the summer period, would be the best way to launch the activities of the sub committee.

At the outset, the challenges were many: how to get tutors and resources, how to ensure local participation, how to advertise... The long lists of things to do that were drawn up were endless and daunting.

However, the unfailing enthusiasm of Ms Caruana and her many initial contacts with the FES and the local community succeeded to set the ball rolling.

FES challenge

The first few meetings with Nora Macelli, chief executive officer, and Victor Galea, deputy national co-ordinator of the Institute for Child and Parent Learning Support, of the FES, established that they would provide three tutors, co-ordinated by Marthese Mugliett; an Id f'Id animator, Miriam Sammut (both under the guidance of the Id f'Id programme co-ordinator of the Institute for Child and Parent Learning Support); and two Social Administration University students, Susan Bharwani and Lorraine Azzopardi.

This contribution of human resources was offered together with reading packs, cushions, working tables, a rubber carpet and so on.

The commitment spurred the sub-committee to meet the challenge put forward by the FES, to develop a programme together that involved the local community NGOs and local resource persons for the evening Outreach programme.

June 30 is a landmark in the history of Senglea council. Most of the local NGOs responded to an invitation to meet and discuss their participation in the Community Literacy Outreach programme. Many assurances of active participation were put forward, which are being fulfilled unfailingly each week.

Programme overview

The sub-committee also decided that the Family Literacy Programme would be targeted at children aged four to 10, who would meet twice a week.

The first 45 minutes would focus on the literacy programme facilitated by the FES team members. The remaining time would be dedicated to activities and games organised and facilitated by trained youth volunteers and subcommittee members.

Every week a particular theme is selected that reflects a topic chosen by the Outreach event organiser in consultation with the morning literacy co-ordinator, the NGO involved and other resource persons. This created a coherent children's programme that focuses on a particular theme each week.

The programme is being guided throughout from the outcome of those NGO meetings. The first week dealt with pet animals and their sounds, and the morning and evening sessions were centred round the theme of pets.

Another week dealt with crafts in which local talent, Saviour Bonello, Elsie Ghirxi, Carmen Calleja and Henry Alamango gave demonstrations of art and craft; while the children were asked to read instructions on how to make these by themselves.

The Kummissjoni Zghazagh Senglejani worked with the event organiser on the theme of friendship, and the evening August 1 was a total success, with a tug-of-war the highlight of the evening and a treasure hunt in which the children had to read to find various items.

The next event, on August 8, saw the coach of Senglea Football Nursery giving a demonstration of football passes and then the children were asked to write down questions to interview the young footballers.

Forthcoming events are centred on the theme of music, with the Queen's Own Band Club of Senglea demonstrating various musical instruments, and a tombola event in which the children will be asked to make up different words. Every evening proved to be an astounding success through the number of families that regularly participate, the apt skills of Ms Sammut, and of course the women and youth volunteers who are always there ready to help.

The final event on Friday will be held in the historic Gwardjola, and will consist of three workshops aimed at parents while the children will be entertained with a puppet show. The morning session participants will be giving a talent show of everything they have produced together in the past few weeks.

The children are also preparing for a performance with the help of the women of Senglea, University students and youth volunteers. Afterwards, Senglea council is organising a reception for all participants in recognition of everybody's role in the Senglea Family Literacy programme.

Camaraderie between the women of Senglea

This community initiative came to fruition through the hard work and enthusiasm of all the Senglea women helpers who worked tirelessly throughout summer to ensure programme's the success.

On our part, the women on the sub committee still cannot believe that what we started gathered momentum at such speed... many decisions that we took paid off.

There was the fear that there would not be enough participants, so it was decided that members of the sub-committee and the youth helpers (average age 12-13) distributed leaflets promoting the activity to households and retail outlets within the community.

The target was to reach 35 children. Within just three days we stopped at 43. More applications kept pouring in and many people were disappointed.

We knew we needed more helpers and some brought their friends. Jeannette Mills, Josephine Saliba and Lilian Camilleri became regular volunteers.

Senglea council is taking an active stance, as a local governmental entity, to battle illiteracy and educational under-achievement among children in the locality while promoting community integration.

The programme emphasises parents' roles as learners as well as supporters of their children's education. At the same time, the programme is empowering families to take a determining role in their children's educational development by equipping them with the necessary skills and information.

The vision projected is that the community is not only a place where people work, reside and serve, but also where we learn and connect.

The women on the sub-committee are now full of enthusiasm and confidence and are thinking hard of what to prepare for the coming winter period. The list is already long and daunting, but the talk now is not of what we can do, but rather of how we can do it!

Ms Spiteri is chairperson of the Education Sub-Committee of Senglea council. She carries out this role on a voluntary basis.