Omamas’ Journey to Break the Cycle of Poverty in Slovakia
Places to Grow organized a peer-learning webinar introducing a Slovak ECD home visits program that shows a promising impact on the cognitive, language and motor development of treated children. If you have missed the event, you can read a summary below or watch the full recording.
The program is the flagship initiative of Cesta von (Way Out). It was introduced by Pavel Hrica, Cesta’s Executive Director, who co-founded the pioneering non-profit in 2018. The program is most active in Slovak regions where 5–20% children fail in the first year of elementary school.
The backbone of the program is made up of a group of Omamas: women from local communities employed by Cesta von. Omamas provide hourly lessons, usually in clients’ homes in the settlements on cities’ periphery. Half an hour is dedicated to play with the children and another half to supporting their parents. Omamas perform six such visits a day.
Prior to joining the program, most omamas stayed at home as housewives or were unemployed. Typically, they have no formal education. To help omamas with their new demanding job and assure quality of learning, a tandem of a supervisor and a mentor gives each omama a regular weekly feedback.
Another important aid to omamas is an app developed by Cesta von. The app plans each…
