Projects and Activities
Early Childhood Care and Development - Nepal
Early childhood care for the physical, intellectual, emotional and social development of young children in Kathmandu's slums
Kapan district, Nepal
Background
In Kathmandu's ever-expanding slums, parents and children old enough to work do so under extremely difficult conditions typically finding jobs in carpet factories, brickworks or the textile industry.
As a result, they are quite busy and do not have enough time to look after their children properly. Younger children are the first victims of these precarious living conditions a high mortality rate and a lack and basic care (heath, nutrition or affection and tenderness from an adult).
Many parents are not aware of how Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) activities can help improve children’s psychosocial development. According to the parents, children are too young to play or be involved in recreational and educational activities.
It is however widely recognised that a child’s first six years of existence are crucial for his/her development, future learning capacity and academic success. The physical, intellectual, emotional and social development of children strongly depends on the attention given to them from their youngest age.
It is from these considerations and the belief that a strong and stable sense of love and confidence, a feeling of trust and a secure environment are essential to their social, emotional, intellectual and physical development of a child.
Objectives
To enable psycho-social development of 3-5 year old children in Kapan VDC by providing a community based child care centre in which parents are actively involved, and by sensitising the community to the importance of early childhood care.Bice Asia’s intervention and main results
Activities in the centre
To develop the motor, intellectual and socio-affective skills of young children, the centre provides numerous entertaining activities. By playing games or learning songs children are able to learn colours, the alphabet, counting etc. They learn how to interact with their classmates by participating in team-building activities, and they are encouraged to express themselves, to develop their speech abilities and their sense of logic.
Parent Involvement
To ensure that the effects of these activities on children last, it is important to implicate parents, especially fathers, in their children’s education, and to use local resources as much as possible. Child participation is crucial in children’s growth and development. It is an opportunity for them to learn by participating, interacting and observing people, objects, ways to do things and in order to imitate them.
Impressive results
In only a few short months, the children from the center have shown impressive progress. Children who before were shy or aggressive, often dirty and impolite, are now more sociable, take care of their hygiene, share their toys with their classmates and speak more clearly and spontaneously even to people they have never met. Small progress like more frequent smiles, ball passes to friends, relevant questions asked to adults etc, show that these children are growing healthy, and encourage their parents to stimulate their children in the same way. “Rohan, 3 years old, was a real loner and was quite aloof when he first started at the center. Now, he’s one of the most sociable kids. Every morning, as he arrives at the centre, he exclaims with a large smile “Here I am!”
