Women And Child

From the conception and throughout early childhood, all infants and young children need a safe and secure upbringing in a friendly and stimulating environment. The early childhood period from 0-6 is characterized by rapid physical growth and a period where children are especially vulnerable as they explore the world around them and develops. In Bangladesh, this aspect of child development was previously not clearly prioritized in both the government and development sector.
Now, however, Songshoptaque has been implementing the ECD project ‘Modhur Hashi’ since October 2005. This has been done with technical and financial assistance fromNayantara Communications as part of SISIMPUR OUTREACH program funded by USAID. It was a project of six months duration undertaken in those areas where there were limited facilities for TV watching. Aiming to promote ECDE in Anowara Upazilla of Chittagong by extending educational messages through television program “123, SISIMPUR”, Anowara, Barakhain , Burumchhara, Chaturi and Haildhar unions had been selected for project implementation area. It was accomplished mainly in two ways firstly, ‘Awareness raising and skill development of 500 parents/ caregivers on ECDE through conducting 20 workshops.’ Secondly, disseminating SISIMPUR messages on Childhood disability towards 2000 children through child club formation, community viewing.
The primary target group was parents / caregivers of 3 to 6 years children irrespective of sex and class. Most of them were farmers, fishermen, wild fry collectors, daily laborers and poor. Their family income was less then two thousand taka per month. Most of them were illiterate. They were not aware on Water and Sanitation, Health, and Birth Registration & Non-formal Primary education. Under this project, about 500 parents / caregivers had been trained. This training made them aware on early childhood education, care & development. Four types of Nayantara Outreach Kits (NOK) had been used for this purpose. Project works were closely monitored and evaluated by the project coordinator and monthly reports had been produced. Finally the Modhur Hasi project has been completed successfully by January 2007.