This is a rare case study of a pilot project to address the specific needs of children under 5 affected by HIV/AIDS who are typically ignored at the programming level and often miss the benefits of general HIV/AIDS interventions. The project operated in Western Kenya and the study contains evidence of the work carried out, a lessons learned catalogue of the processes and tools developed, and a set of suggestions of how the tools and processes might be adapted to other groups in other contexts. It is an excellent example of a community based response to the needs of very young children and addresses the key challenges faced in attempting to do so
The study compares children who were taught by preschool teachers trained in the two-year course run by District Centres for Early Childhood Education (DICECE) with those who had untrained teachers. The study, carried out in Embu District (Kenya), found significant differences between the two groups of children particularly in terms of performance in primary schools, with children cared for by DICECE-trained teachers faring better, and in relation to absenteeism, repetition and dropout rates