The ASF's "Establishment of Community-based Early Childhood Care and Development Programs in Selected Urban Poor Communities" seeks to:

• provide affordable pre-school education and supplemental feeding to at least 200 children, aged 4 to 7 years old;
• enhance the skills knowledge and attitude of para-teachers, caregivers and leaders in the management and implementation of day care projects; and,
• develop a capability enhancement package to be used for sustainable capability building assistance.

The project was implemented from November 2005 to April 2007 through the generous financial and material support extended by the Children's Hour Philippines, Inc. (CHPI) and the Makati Rotary Club Foundation.

In order to measure our achievements in reaching these objectives, ASF and key representatives from our partner community organizations regularly conduct joint assessment activities. Our assessments of the implementation of the early childhood development program in six urban poor communities from November 2005-April 2007 is quite encouraging. Within this period, the project has provided quality pre-school education to more than the targeted number of students, contributed in enhancing our partner community organization's capability in implementing and managing an early childhood education program and developed ASF's capability in assisting our partner organizations.

Pre-school Education and Nutrition Enhancement

A total of 303 pre-school students were enrolled in our day care centers, 234 of whom graduated by the end of the school year. These students learned the basic writing, reading and arithmetic skills that will enable them to move on to higher levels of education. One hundred and sixty nine (169 or 70% of 234) of those who graduated will be enrolling in primary school this school year (2007 -2008) while the remaining 64 students will move on to one of the higher grades of early childhood education (preparatory 1 and 2 ).

The project's nutritional status enhancement component was also sustained and a success. Each center regularly monitored the weight of their students. This enabled us to identify 120 improperly nourished children. The program addressed this concern through supplemental feeding and parent education activities. By the end of the March 2007, the nutritional status of these children improved. By then majority were within the normal weight for Filipino children. However, 25 remained outside the normal weight range recommended by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI). It is good to note, however, that these children were mildly underweight (8) and mildly or moderately overweight (17). The teachers and parents of the overweight children noted difficulty in controlling the eating habits of some of the children. Though the parents were educated on proper nutrition, some did not strictly abide by our advice, particularly when a child goes into tantrum when denied their usual amount of food.

Capability-building of Community Organizations

The leaders', teachers' and day care committee members' skills, knowledge and attitude in managing and implementing their day care programs were developed.

• The project enabled three new teachers to attend the Teacher's training conducted by the Parent's Alternative Inc. This Teacher training activity and consultations helped develop the teachers' skills and enabled them to provide quality services to the children. These skills include lesson planning, child discipline and handling special/disturbed children.
• The teachers were able to develop the curriculum for their respective day care centers. The curriculum focused on the mastery of writing, counting and reading. Class activities were designed creatively to ensure that the children enjoy their learning experiences while enabling them to learn the necessary skills they need for primary school.
• Organization-wise, the capability building trainings led to the development of basic project management skills of more than 25 day care committee members and leaders from the six (6) day care centers. To cite, the MNAI Day care Center will be operating independent of assistance from us this school year 2007-2008. Its leaders have already developed their day care management skills and have established linkage with other organizations and institutions that could support their center's future operations.

For the five (5) other day care centers, improvements along planning and monitoring, documentation, budgeting and troubleshooting of implementation related problems were observed. Basic leadership skills such as facilitation of meetings, mobilizing of members were also developed.

• The financial management systems in the six (6) day care centers have been installed. This is seen with the use of temporary cash vouchers and receipts, checks and balance in finance, and the proper documentation of financial transactions. The centers also learned to build up resources for their operations through the fund raising activities and by tapping partner institutions/organizations for material and financial donations.

In spite of these, we see areas for improvement in the planning, monitoring and evaluation skills of our partner organizations. There is also a need to consolidate and strengthen three (3) local organizations to ensure the sustainability of projects in their communities.

Development of a capability enhancement package

The ASF was also successful in developing its own capability to help the local organizations help themselves. The ASF was able to develop modules on Planning, Bookkeeping, Christian Leadership and Project Management. These modules proved effective in building the capability of leaders in managing their day care centers as shown by the success of the trainings in six (6) partner communities. These modules, as part of the ASF's capability building package, will enable us to provide sustainable capability building assistance to our future local partner organization.