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EARLY CHILDHOOD RESOURCE CENTER

PO Box 25222

Jerusalem 97300, Via Israel

Tel: 00 972 2 819 808/812 308

Fax: 00 972 2 823 164

Director

Ms. Asia Habash

Type of Organization:

Non-profit; curriculum development; in-service training; research and analysis; production.

Description:

Founded in 1985. Aims to address the need for a progressive approach to early childhood education an care which integrates universal childhood development knowledge with the realities of Palestinian Arab culture and civilization. Considering the child's development as an interactive process, the Center advocates the comprehensive development of the child's cognitive, physical and psycho-social potential through active learning strategies. Helps develop and upgrade the curriculum and teacher training in early childhood education. ECRC strategies are based on teacher's' participation and empowerment, self-realization, humanism, and democracy, with education as one of the main forces for change and development. Priorities include: upgrading the competence of pre-school teachers; provision of alternative models of kindergartens and day care centers; encouraging the production of low cost teaching/learning materials; research into pre-school education; providing a specialized early childhood education resource library, and promoting community and parental awareness of the importance of early childhood education. Center units include: a Program and Training Unit, a Production Unit for toys and teachers' aids, a Resource Library, and a Research Unit. ECRC runs two day care centers -- at Dahiat al-Barid to serve the Jerusalem Outreach Unit, and in Hebron, to serve the Hebron Outreach Unit.

Administrative Structure:

Board of Directors of eight members, all shareholders and staff of the Early Childhood Resource Center; and an Executive Committee of the four unit heads: Project Director, Executive Director, Program Director, Finance Director.

Publications:

• In the My Friend Marah series:
  • My Friend Marah (three volumes of children's stories, A)
  • My Friend Marah ( a children's workbook series of 3 volumes, A, in color)
  • The Marah Cassette (children's songs, A)
• The Simple Guide to Dealing with a Child (a guidebook for parents and educators, A)
• Block Construction Workbook (A)
• A'touna Al-Toufoulah (Give us Childhood, Raya Leena Punamaki, in cooperation with ECRC, A)
• Teachers' guide books (A)
  • Creative Movement
  • Logico-Mathematical Readiness
  • Creative Art Expression
  • Drama
  • Language
• Various conference papers (A)
  • Karma, Last of the Bunch; The Money Tree and Said and the Nightingale (three children's stories for pre-school age, A)
  • Pre-School Education in the West Bank: A Quantitative Survey (Cairo Arafat, A/E)

Elaine Clark

Educational Network, POB 66, Ramallah, West Bank

tel: 02 995 6230/fax: 02 995 6231 e-mail: eclark@ednet.birzeit.edu