The IECD approach, giving children a better chance to fully develop their potential
Her eldest son, A-Blum is nearly 6 years old. Every morning, he goes by himself to the village kindergarten, only a hundred meters away from home. He really enjoys the kindergarten because he can meet and play with other children there. He loves to do the morning exercise, sing and dance with his friends. He also likes drawing and playing with the toys that the teacher made for them. Sometimes, “uncle doctor” comes with an “earphone” and listens to his heart, puts him on a scale and measures him by a “meter pole”. After that, “uncle doctor” always tells him “well done young man!” A-Blum did not like the class that much when he first came to the kindergarten two years ago. He dropped out after only a few days as he didn’t understand the teacher and did not enjoy the class at all. At that time, the teacher only taught in Vietnamese - which was not familiar to many ethnic minority children in remote areas of Viet Nam. “More and more children have joined us since we started teaching in both Xe- dang and Vietnamese. I have 35 children in my class now and that accounts for around 90 per cent of the children from 3 to 6 in the village”, said Hanh, the kindergarten teacher. She is among hundreds of kindergarten teachers who participated in UNICEF supported training in facilitating play, managing multi-aged classes and preventing child injuries in the classroom. UNICEF also provided them with teaching guides and bilingual materials.
Unlike A-Blum, his brother A-Khi goes to the fields with his parents everyday. Their field is a two-hour walk from home so they usually leave very early in the morning when it is still dark. A-Khi often sleeps on his father’s back on the way and he spends most of the time during the day playing by himself or sleeping inside their small thatched hut in the field. “I will send him to the kindergarten as soon as he turns four, in a few months time. We also sent his brother to the kindergarten when he was four but he dropped out in no time. But it’s different now and his brother really likes it so I think A-Khi will like it too”, said Y-Ner. Y-Chau is just one year old and is the youngest member of the family. Cute little Y-Chau spends most of the time with her mother. With a simple cloth band, Y-Ner carries her daughter on her back when she is working and transfers her to the front when she wants to play with or breastfeed her daughter. “I feel more comfortable if she is with me. I can feed her whenever she is hungry, talk to her while I am working and play with her when I have time” said Y-Ner. “We like each other’s company” she laughed.
Y-Ner and her young family, despite living in a difficult and remote area of the country, are living examples of just how effective and beneficial this system can be, when properly implemented.
|
Y-Ner is a 29 years old Xe-dang ethnic minority woman living in Dac-Blo village of Kon Tum, one of the poorest provinces in the central highlands area of Viet Nam. She is married and has three children, two sons and a daughter.
The classroom is simply decorated, tidy and clean. The kindergarten starts every morning with hand-checking and only children with clean hands are allowed to go into the classroom. Basins of water are placed outside the classroom for children to wash their hands and feet before entering. The water basins are filled every morning by the teacher and some parents who volunteer to give the teacher a hand to fetch water from the well, 50 meters away. The commune health centre sends a doctor to the kindergarten every six months to help the teacher to check the children’s health and monitor their growth.
Today, little Y-Chau stays with her father as Y-Ner is having a meeting at the commune house. She is a member of the village communication group - an initiative supported by UNICEF. The group consists of women of child-bearing age, the village health worker, women’s union and village head. The group usually meets every month to share information and exchange experiences about things like child care and development. Y-Ner actively participates in all the meetings and tries to practice most of the things she learns. For example, she went to the commune health centre for pre-natal check-ups when she was pregnant, she breastfed her children exclusively for their first six months and got them fully immunized. She also made sure to register the births of her children. She is very proud that her children are healthy and playful and enjoys sharing her experience with other women in the village “I am thankful to our village health worker for his help. He used to come to my house the night before the immunization date and told us to bring our children to the commune health centre for their shots. He also helped us to monitor their growth and advised us how to feed them to avoid malnourishment” said Y-Ner.
Y-Ner and her children are beneficiaries of the Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) activities supported by UNICEF, which aim to give children the best start in life. The five key components of Early Childhood Development: health, nutrition, water and environmental sanitation, psychosocial care with early learning, and child protection were traditionally carried out by different sectors. IECD adopts a coordinated approach involving policy makers through to local grass roots workers in order to provide quality care and protection for children in their first years of life. “This coordinated, integrated approach is essential to ensure the survival, optimal growth and development of children. Intervening early helps avoid future, costly problems for society. Investment in young children is one of the best investments one can make for the long-term development of every nation and its citizens,” said Christian Salazar, Officer-in-charge of UNICEF Viet Nam.