Empowering the Village to Raise the Child:

The Blog of the International Child Resource Institute

Archive for the ‘Early Childhood Development’ Category

Hearts Leap Center

Monday, January 30th, 2012

The following blog post was written by Hanyun Cai, an ICRI intern for 2011-2012. Hanyun grew up in Shanghai, China and studied anthropology and biology in the United States. She is deeply interested in issues of early childhood education and non-profit management. “I am committed to bringing invaluable lessons learned at ICRI back home to benefit more children in the world,” she said. This post describes her recent visit to our Hearts Leap South Center at 2640 College Avenue in Berkeley, CA.

The moment I walked into the Oak Room, I wanted to be a child again. Sixteen three- year-olds formed a circle on the floor. On the giant blue and white dyed table cloth, they were enjoying an indoor picnic, sipping hot chocolate while munching on freshly baked pastries. It was a room full of happy laughter, pleasant aromas, stimulating colors and round-corner wooden furniture, all immersed in warm natural light. Countless developmentally appropriate activities, mostly art-related, take place here, with high parental involvement and full attention from teachers— something uncommon in a preschool elsewhere; but in Hearts Leap Preschool, this is every day.

Picture 1. Picnic in the Oak Room.

Located in the historic Julia Morgan Centerfor the Arts, Hearts Leap is one of the six child care and early childhood development centers operated by International Child Resource Institute (ICRI) in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2001, ICRI was asked to take over the operation of this child care center in south Berkeley, and Hearts Leap has since been recognized both locally and internationally as a model early childhood program. Staffed with twelve talented and dedicated teachers, Hearts Leap not only demonstrates the best possible preschool but also experiments with new ways of teaching according to most recent pedagogical research. It always receives high demand for slots from local parents. Educators from around the world come here for study and learning exchange opportunities.

Picture 2. Small Group Time for Reflection and Community.

When asked what makes Hearts Leap different, Ellie Mashhour, the Child Care Operations Manager at ICRI, said: “We look at each individual child, see where the child is, what the child needs, and how we as adults can really push him/her to that direction which he/she desires most.”

Hearts Leap utilizes a discovery-based emergent curriculum. The central philosophy of an emergent curriculum is that everything is emergent in nature and the planning of curriculum should reflect both children’s and teachers’ interests and passions. It is a dynamic process that focuses on the dialogue and cooperation between teachers and children, encouraging creative, experiential, and life-related learning. Inspired by developmental psychologists Piaget and Vygotsky and world-known philosopher John Dewey, the curriculum is drastically different from a predefined curriculum under which children always do the same thing by following a set of concrete instructions together (Yu-le 2004).

Young children learn by imagining and doing. Granted with a lot of independence, children are soaked in an interactive learning environment with experienced staff on a day to day basis. A range of activities, including music and movement, yoga and gymnastics, take place here every day. Teachers not only use language, but also gestures, facial expressions, drawings, music to communicate with children. Ellie said, “We are not babysitting children. We are not just looking after them so they are safe. We are teachers, here to assist and guide them.” The classroom is a highly engaging and inspirational space.

Picture 3. Diverse Constructions Make An Outdoor Play Area Fun–Always Something to Explore.

Picture 4. The Classroom Provides Children with A Plentitude of Opportunities to Express Themselves by Doing Art.

The classroom setting is an “unspoken teacher” in emergent curriculum. Hearts Leap constructs explorative and developing classrooms where teachers, students, and teaching materials interact in the context of dialogue. Designed with exquisite details, Hearts Leap is a safe, homey and dreamy place that contains areas devoted to art expression, music, pretend play, science, reading, sports, etc. Children’s social and emotional skills, language skills, thinking skills, and ability to imagine and to create are encouraged to grow together in such an environment.

Picture 5. Reading Corner Designed for Children to Develop Their Literacy Skills.

Picture 6. Pretend Play Area—“Doctor” and “Patient.”

Picture 7. Music/movement Area.

Picture 8. Block Play Area.

Under an emergent curriculum, Hearts Leap seeks to promote the full realization of a child’s whole life—every child is considered a distinct individual. The staff aims to correspond to the need of the child all-round development. Everyone’s uniqueness is highly appreciated here. For instance, the rooms are filled with pictures, completed projects, and detailed information of each child. Hearts Leap also maintains a library of “Love Letters” in which if a teacher has any contact with a child, he/she writes couple of sentences about the day and the activity. In addition, a portfolio is created and kept since day one at Hearts Leap, including copies of the first picture one draws and another one does six months later.

Picture 9. Every Child’s Family is Connected via a Map on the Wall.

High parental involvement and community engagement is another feature that makes Hearts Leap stand out. Ellie said: “We maintain close contact with the schools in Berkeley and Oakland—know the kindergarten teachers and first-grade school teachers. Our staffs go and sit down in their classrooms and hear their expectations. We are fully aware what transitions they are looking for in a child.” The administrator also makes great efforts to ensure both school and home are continuous learning spaces for students. Parents are encouraged to take active roles in organizing community events and playing with children, and maintaining constant contact with teachers.

Picture 10. Parental Involvement is Essential Piece of Hearts Leap’s High Quality Childcare.

Beyond its local operation, Hearts Leap engages in international efforts to impact more children’s lives. In 2005, Ellie was invited to talk about early childhood development curriculum inSharonChildcareCenterin a small village nearNairobi,Kenyafor the first time. However when she arrived, she realized there was something that deserved more attention,

“It was hard for me to work with the staff when I was seeing the hungry children; many of them were with one teacher. I wanted to talk to the teachers about health and safety but there was even no water for me to show them how to wash their hands. So my focus immediately went to the basic needs to provide children with water and food.”

After the trip, Ellie shared her story with the families at Hearts Leap and organized several fundraising events. The preschool had a cooking project in which the children baked and sold the cookies to parents. It raised $750 dollars and bought water bottles, which were later painted by the children and sent to children inKenya. “Last year, we also funded a trip for the children inSharonCenterto visit the city as a gift for their graduation. Now we have hired a local nurse to visitSharononce a month,” said Ellie.

Picture 11. Message Board at Hearts Leap with Pictures Sent from Kenya.

Her dream is to find a permanent site for the sixty children at Sharon Center, “Right now they are at the church so they are not able to participate in schooling every day if there is a wedding or funeral. I will continue to work with the teachers to find a better place. The challenge is cultural issues that are not being paid attention, to get to know them.”

In close relationship with ICRI Africa, Hearts Leap has extended its experience of building access to high quality and developmentally-appropriate early childhood education forAfrica’s poorest children. By imaging and creating a child-caring community beyond boundaries, Hearts Leap manifests the possibilities of what a child care center today can be—a promising and enlightening picture it is painting for all children.

Reference: Yu-le, Z. (2004). Some thoughts on emergent curriculum. Paper presented at the Forum for Integrated Education and Educational Reform sponsored by the Council for Global Integrated Education,Santa Cruz,CA, October 28-30.

Posted in Early Childhood Development, ICRI 30th anniversary | No Comments »

A Year of Joy, Hope and Challenge at ICRI

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

The year 2011 has brought a wonderful array of successes along with a greater knowledge of the needs of children in many parts of the world.

Engaged students, teachers and parents at El Nuevo Mundo

Around the world, our programs have achieved greater levels of success but we have also seen obstacles to the healthy growth and development of children. Some of our successes:

Our UNICEF –funded Water Sanitation Health and Nutrition Project in Kenya reached 60,000 families with water-filtration systems, health outreach and nutrition education. We saw, through this project, the remarkable work of our Kenya staff in reaching families and children in three of the poorest regions in northern Kenya.
In Nepal, our National Center on Learning Resources (NCLR) continued to develop child-friendly schools in collaboration with 18 public and private primary and preschools. The work of our amazing Nepali teacher trainers in engaging the hearts and minds of teachers and parents through active participation and community involvement is a sight to behold.
In Ghana, we have recently launched a new National Early Childhood Teacher Coalition where those who believe that young Ghanaian children deserve supportive, nurturing, and curiosity-building education can receive training, resources and support.
In Zimbabwe, we continue to marvel at the Marondara Early Childhood Center serving AIDS orphans and other community children. Our staff has developed a building that nurtures children and our local teachers continue to create stimulating environments using only found objects and local materials.
In India, we are providing more teacher trainings to improve curricula, program delivery and environmental development for children in the Bengaluru and Kolkata areas.
Here in the U.S., we are working on articles moving us from research to practice on children’s brain development, international child advocacy efforts, and helping the world to see that they can use found objects and local materials to create high-quality, developmentally-stimulating environments for children around the world. We also welcomed to our ICRI family a bilingual preschool, El Nuevo Mundo, which serves children in a low-income target area of Richmond, California.
In Malaysia, we designed an ECD center for the Central Bank of Malaysia that will serve as a model in the region for many years to come.

Our challenges include the need to refine or expand our work to serve more children, more schools, more families, and more communities more effectively in Kenya, Nepal, Ghana, Zimbabwe, India and the U.S. We are also working to make our offices and programs around the world to become more self-sufficient by launching local fund development initiatives in each of the countries in which we work.

Our reason for hope is that we see a world where many of us better understand the needs of children and are more ready than ever to work at seeking lasting, sustainable solutions that will promote each child’s health, safety, education and security around the world.

You can help by donating to ICRI and, if you wish, designating a country or project that you would like to support. You can visit our website here to decide which project you would like to assist. You can make your donation by going to this link.

We thank those of you who are already part of the ICRI worldwide family and welcome all of you who want to bring about lasting change that will result in a world where no child is hungry, every child can reach his or her full potential and all those who nurture and care for children will be rewarded for the critical roles they play. We wish for you a joyous and peaceful new year!

For the children,

Ken.

Posted in Early Childhood Development, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Nuevo Mundo, Uncategorized, Zimbabwe | No Comments »

Separate and Unequal Education in Nepal

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

ICRI has been working in Nepal for over a decade. In our projects focusing on education, health, and children’s rights we have seen incredible challenges facing disabled Nepali children and families.

Our National Center for Learning Resources program serves a number of schools where students have physical disabilities. Our team has been able to effectively advocate for simple accommodations to allow these children to be integrated into the school with their peers.

As a new report from Human Rights Watch documents, however, many disabled Nepali children continue to be isolated and excluded from the country’s educational system.

(August 24, 2011) – Children with disabilities in Nepal face diverse and imposing barriers to getting a basic education, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Schools are physically inaccessible, teachers are inadequately trained, and some children with disabilities are unjustly denied admission to neighborhood schools, Human Rights Watch found.

The 76-page report, “Futures Stolen: Barriers to Education for Children with Disabilities in Nepal,” documents the hurdles that children with disabilities face in obtaining a quality education in Nepal. Some children with disabilities experience abuse and neglect at home and in their communities, making it harder for them to gain access to schooling. These barriers result in low attendance and high dropout rates for children with disabilities compared with their non-disabled peers.

“Tens of thousands of children with disabilities in Nepal are being shut out from or neglected by the school system,” said Shantha Rau Barriga, disability rights researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch. “TheNepalese education system needs to offer appropriate, quality education to all children, including those with disabilities.”

The Human Rights Watch report was based on interviews with nearly 100 disability advocates, teachers, government officials, and children or young people with disabilities and their families.

One of the children Human Rights Watch interviewed was 16-year-old Amman, who lives in the far-western region of Nepal. Because the local school entrance has two steep steps and no ramps, Amman has to crawl to reach his classroom. He cannot use the toilet without assistance and gets no support from school staff, so he either has to wait until he gets home, or another child has to run home to fetch his mother to assist him. Other children in the classroom are afraid to sit near him, so he sits alone in the corner.

Education Ministry officials acknowledge that a significant number of the more than 329,000 primary school aged children who are out of school in Nepal are children with disabilities. The government promotes an inclusive education policy, requiring communities to provide education to all children without discrimination. But many children with disabilities are not provided the support they need to attend community schools, and many schools are unprepared to teach children with disabilities.

Research shows that an inclusive approach to education can boost learning for all students and combat harmful stereotypes of people with disabilities. However, the government of Nepal relies upon segregated, and often inferior, classes for children with disabilities, and separate schools for children who have physical, sensory, or intellectual disabilities.

Many children with disabilities were turned away from schools entirely, Human Rights Watch found. More than half of the families with children with disabilities interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that their children were denied admission to schools, both public and private. Many parents were not aware that their children had the right to attend school.

International donors and United Nations agencies are seemingly aware of the lack of targeted efforts to ensure that children with disabilities are in school. But they have not done enough to ensure that funding for education is distributed without discrimination and equitably benefits children with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said.

“As funding pours into Education For All programs in Nepal, the government, the UN and international donors need to make sure that children with disabilities are not excluded,” Barriga said. “The government and its partners need to have a clear plan for integrating children with disabilities, particularly intellectual or developmental disabilities, into mainstream schools.”

The curriculum in Nepal’s schools does not take into account differences in learning ability, so children with disabilities who are in mainstream schools repeatedly fail and are more likely to repeat a grade. One 15-year-old boy with a psychosocial disability told Human Rights Watch, “I spent three years in Class 1, then three years in Class 2, then one year in Class 3. But I don’t know the alphabet. The teacher just wrote my exams. That’s why I passed.”

As a result of the lack of educational options for some children with disabilities, lack of information about options, and schools’ refusals to admit children with disabilities, some parents said they saw no choice but to lock their children with disabilities in a room or tie them to a post.

The mother of one young boy with a developmental disability told Human Rights Watch, “I offer food and bring him tea. If he does toilet in the room, I clean it up. I have to take care of the whole house; I can’t just look after him. If I spend the whole day with him, my other child will miss his bus, everything will be in disarray.” She lets her son out of the room once or twice a day to see the sun.

The government of Nepal should revise teacher training materials, train all teachers about inclusive education methods, and improve monitoring of access to and the effectiveness of education for children with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said. The government and donors, working together, need to develop awareness-raising and educational campaigns about the right to education and other rights of people with disabilities. Parliament, in consultation with disabled peoples’ organizations, should comprehensively review all domestic legislation and make amendments to comply fully with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Human Rights Watch said.

While it will take time for the school system to become fully inclusive of all children, the government needs to take steps toward this goal, Human Rights Watch said.

For example, the government needs to rethink the use of special resource classes, which are intended as a transition to mainstream schools but which effectively perpetuate segregation. Children in these classes range in age from 6 to 17, with some even in their 20s, and children often remain in these classes for years.

“Nepal needs to honor its obligations to protect the right of all children with disabilities to be educated in a safe, accessible, and non-discriminatory environment,” Barriga said. “Children with disabilities should not be left behind, locked up, or shut out from school and learning.”

- Human Rights Watch press release, 8/24/2011

Posted in Early Childhood Development, Maternal/Child Health, Nepal | No Comments »

ICRI presents the El Nuevo Mundo Class of 2011!

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Fifty one students from the Venaditos (little deer) class of El Nuevo Mundo graduated on August 12, 2011. While the ceremony congratulated students and their families for their hard work, staff and speakers stressed the importance of encouraging students to continue the pursuit of education, to college and beyond.

The excited graduates could hardly contain their excitement backstage! Over the course of the evening, they participated in a Parade of Flags, sang songs in sign language, danced and recited poems.

Director Blanca Silvana Mosca-Carreon and alumni parent Alejandro Rios hosted the ceremony, with special guests John Marquez, Godfather of El Nuevo Mundo, Ken Jaffe, ICRI Executive Director, and Ruth Fernandez, Manager of Education Services at Contra Costa County.

Congratulations, venaditos! We look forward to seeing the good work you will do in coming years.

Photo credits: Judah Lakin

Posted in Early Childhood Development, Nuevo Mundo | No Comments »

Transformation for Children in Malaysia

Monday, August 15th, 2011

ICRI has been working in Malaysia since 1985, when we were invited to conduct a series of trainings in Kuala Lumpur on child advocacy and child development. This led to the formation of our sister organization, the Malaysian Child Resource Institute (MCRI), in 1988.

ICRI and MCRI facilitated the first National Child Advocacy Forum in 1997, and have continued to be deeply involved in national child and family policy advocacy. Working in tandem with ICRI, MCRI has advised numerous Malaysian government agencies, corporations, and NGOs on child advocacy and child development. MCRI has also conducted extensive training and capacity building for grassroots organizations serving Malaysian children and families.

MCRI has been at the forefront of the improvement and expansion of quality early childhood programs in Malaysia. MCRI assisted in the founding of NACEEM, the national association of early childhood professionals, and provides regular training on global best practices in early childhood care and education through Malaysian universities and NGOs. MCRI has also advised the Malaysian government on early childhood policy and programs.

MCRI also established the first national organization working to prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation, Protect and Save the Children. Originally a project of MCRI, P.S. the Children has since grown into its own freestanding organization. Its vision is to create “a world that upholds the rights and dignity of every child – where every child is protected from sexual abuse and exploitation; a world that neither accepts nor tolerates sexual violence, and where a child can SPEAK UP, be heard and be helped; a culture that excuses nobody from sexual crime and violence, where communities not only have the courage to speak up, but are also committed to reach out.”

The 1997 National Child Advocacy Forum was a true turning point for children in Malaysia. Co-sponsored by MCRI, UNICEF, and the Malaysian National Ministry of Planning, the event was a remarkable collaboration between the public sector and NGO sector. Ken Jaffe, ICRI’s Founder and Executive Director, delivered a keynote address and led a multiday workshop that included several key government ministers and officials working together to draft the country’s first national plan for Children. One participant, Shaharizat Abdul Jalil, was at the time the Minister of Children, Women and Labor for Malaysia. She expressed strong sentiments that Malaysia needed the collaboration of NGOs like ICRI and MCRI partnering with government entities in order to meet the diverse needs of the country’s children.

From 1997 to 2009 a major effort took place to make significant change in the quality, content and capacity of children’s programs in the country. In 2009 ICRI was invited to provide keynote speeches at the first Prime Minister and First Lady’s International Conference on Early Childhood Education. To note the remarkable growth from the 1980s to 2009 was a joy to both Malaysians and those working with them on behalf of children. The First Lady convened this international conference and invited First Ladies and Prime Ministers from about 15 other countries.

The 2009 conference was another watershed for children in Malaysia. Participants were able to see firsthand how 12 years of strategic efforts had allowed Malaysia to make substantial improvements in the lives of children and families. Because of the deep involvement of both the Prime Minister and First Lady, the conference had added import, and its impact was felt beyond the country itself. Other world leaders in attendance were inspired to return home and revive or rethink their own country’s vision for children. The Malaysian media also took an unusually strong interest in the conference and covered the event extensively with daily reporting of the conference events and regular prime time interviews with speakers. Thus the level of awareness of the needs of young children was raised not just with policymakers and NGO leaders, but citizens across the country.

ICRI is incredibly grateful to have been so closely involved in the creation and implementation of Malaysian child and family policies. We remain committed to working in Malaysia in the long term, collaborating with both governmental and non-governmental partners to ensure that this country continues its remarkable commitment to children.

Posted in Children's Rights, Early Childhood Development, ICRI 30th anniversary, Malaysia | No Comments »

El Nuevo Mundo

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

El Nuevo Mundo is a bilingual child care center in Richmond, California. It was founded in 1978 by Dr. Roberto Cruz as a model concurrent bilingual preschool program. The center was affiliated with National Hispanic University for over three decades.

The center is funded by the California State Department of Education. El Nuevo Mundo boasts a beautiful atrium and ample indoor/outdoor space for up to 97 children. The program has been enormously popular with local families and maintains a lengthy waiting list. There is a highly dedicated and experienced staff who clearly care deeply about the children.

ICRI has been involved with El Nuevo Mundo in numerous capacities for several years, and in February 2011 took over the full-time operation of the center. We are thrilled to have El Nuevo Mundo become part of the global ICRI family! We are honored to be involved with this vibrant, welcoming center for bilingual youth.

Posted in Early Childhood Development, Nuevo Mundo | No Comments »

Pay Tounen Lo

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Remember when we made a very exciting announcement back in November?

Straw Into Gold was co-authored by Ken Jaffe, ICRI’s Founder and Executive Director, and Leslie Falconer, CEO of Mother Goose Time and longtime ICRI supporter. Ken and Leslie created a hands-on manual, packed with ideas for creating stimulating, developmentally-appropriate learning experiences for young children using found objects or recycled materials.

As we said back in November, “what is most exciting is that the ideas in the book can be implemented around the world for little to no cost, even in areas where teachers and children currently lack access to basic learning materials.” We knew the book would be tremendously popular—but we had no idea how quickly it would be embraced by educators from around the world!

We’ve received reports back from teachers in Nepal who are using the book both in their classrooms and in teacher training programs. Educators in rural Zimbabwe have told us that the ideas in the book adapt successfully to their extremely resource-challenged classrooms. And perhaps most exciting of all? The book is already being translated!

First up: Creole (Kreyol), for use in Haiti. A talented team has adapted the language and content of the book to allow for immediate use by Haitian educators working to create an early childhood education system from the ground up.

We are thrilled to see how Straw Into Gold is used by educators around the world—if you’re one of them, please let us know your thoughts!

Posted in Early Childhood Development, Haiti, Nepal, Uncategorized, Zimbabwe | No Comments »

Las Profesoras

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

In the 1990s, ICRI was invited by the International Center on Aging of the Dominican Republic to assist in the establishment of work related child care programs for the free trade zones of the Dominican Republic. We were also invited to work with a large religious organization, Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, on rural projects to save small Dominican villages.

ICRI was invited to work on a new approach to saving these villages by establishing early childhood centers whereby local young parents would be encouraged to stay in their villages to raise their young children instead of moving into greater poverty in the larger Dominican cities.

The SSM group provided funding and a regional development organization known as FUDECO began to organize rural village early childhood centers along the Dominican-Haitian border, one of the poorest areas in the world. The greatest challenge to the establishment of these village-based early childhood programs was that there were no trained early childhood teachers in these communities.

After much consideration, FUDECO came up with an intriguing plan: since each of the villages had at least one village school with a trained principal and teachers, they decided to offer women who had retired from teaching in these schools a new opportunity. They offered them free training and secure jobs to replace the minimal retirement income that was keeping these women in poverty in retirement. The many women in the first twelve villages to be selected for inclusion in this new program were excited at the opportunity to become useful again in their communities as well as to receive a wage that would help them to survive and thrive. The women began in earnest as directors and head-teachers of programs that were based in cement or dirt-floored, metal-roofed rooms that were found in the plazas of most of these villages. The directors received initial training from FUDECO and introductory training from local UNICEF representatives. ICRI was requested to come in to the programs to help the women to reach the next level of quality, function, and support for the children they were serving.

The women rapidly became seen as community leaders and became part of a new local infrastructure of community service to children and families in each of the villages that they served. In ICRI’s work with the teachers who became known as “Profesoras,” a name of high honor in the Dominican Republic, we were dealing with a remarkably adept, flexible, creative, and powerful group of women between 65 and 85 years old. The women became the dynamic centers of early childhood programs that were serving children, helping parents, and keeping younger local population in the villages.

At the 85^th birthday party of a wiry, white-haired woman with a perennial smile and a look of intensity in her eyes, she was asked how long she would continue to work. “I think I’ll probably retire in another ten years. This has been the most amazing five years of my life.”

The program has now grown from 12 villages to 52 villages along the Dominican-Haitian border. In each village, the Profesoras are leaders, advocates, great supporters and mentors for young children and families. Most of all, the Profesoras have defied the traditional views of aging and demonstrated the true wisdom, leadership, and vitality that elders can provide in a community.

Posted in Community Economic Development, Dominican Republic, Early Childhood Development, ICRI 30th anniversary | No Comments »

On the Use of Dynamite in the Andes

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

During the 1990s, ICRI was invited by the National Family and Children’s Institute of Ecuador to help develop regulations for a new national law on work-related child care and to assist with modernizing early childhood education programs around the country. Ken Jaffe, ICRI’s Executive Director, recalls:

We had already met with several different early childhood leaders in various Ecaudorian communities to provide substantive information, training, and support. Successes included new teacher training techniques, room configurations, and the use of found objects and locally made materials to create improved early childhood environments. Toward the end of our work, I was pulled aside by two of the Family and Children’s Institute staff to discuss the visit scheduled to take place the following day. I was told of a fascinating community, high in the Andes off of the Pan-American Highway outside of Quito. The community, known as Lucha de las Pobres (“Struggle of the Poor”), was comprised of 25,000 ‘squatters’ who had taken over government land in the mountains in order to put down roots away from greater poverty in other locales.

The community, I was told, had health services, child care programs, a school, and other surprising features created by a highly organized community council which reflected the diversity of the community. As I became excited about assisting the early childhood centers, family child care providers and child health program, I began to see a very serious expression cross the face of Cesar Caceres, my colleague and new friend. “Ken, there’s one more thing we need to tell you so you can decide whether you want to go to Lucha tomorrow morning. They use dynamite.” As I tried to gain a little more clarity regarding the warning, I came to understand that the members of the community were extremely afraid that the government, through its army, would one day try to re-take the land. It seemed that guards, inconspicuously stationed at the entrance and other key areas in the community, would throw sticks of dynamite under trucks, cars, or at people from the outside. The next question I asked was the most important one: “Do they know and trust you?” When Cesar answered in the affirmative, I said that I would stay very close to them during the entirety of my stay at Lucha de las Pobres.

The first two hours in the community the next morning were understandably tense, and my proximity to Cesar and his colleagues violated all rules of proper distance for normal communication. After working with a group of dedicated people to explore ways to improve one early childhood center in an old barn where clean hay was strewn across the dirt and rock floor to help protect children from hard falls, we moved onto several other programs. Throughout my time at Lucha de las Pobres, I was told that the best early childhood educator in all of Lucha was a woman who provided care to 12 small children in her tiny house on the side of a very steep canyon.

After riding, walking and sliding down an approximately 1,000 foot section of rough terrain, I was welcomed by Clemencia, a woman in her 50s, and her 12 year old assistant. In a small courtyard, eleven children were playing happily, utilizing old pots, pans and bits of wood to create wonderful fantasies. Clemencia was baking bread in her only cooking area, outside, facing the courtyard. She invited me into the tiny two-room house where children came in and used her bed as their climbing structure, and played with simple wooden utensils and some local plants. Clemencia looked at each child lovingly and took me to visit a little girl with physical disabilities who was lying in a woven basket on the side of the smaller room and playing with a wooden block. She picked the girl up to introduce her to me and stroked her cheek as she said that this child should have the same opportunities as the other children in her care.

I asked her, through an interpreter, how she planned for the children that she talked about so lovingly. She motioned with her eyes toward a dusty wooden box sitting on a small table near her bed. When I opened the box I found very old file folders containing, to my surprise, individual development plans for each child in Clemencia’s care. I saw that she made summary notes each week on their growth and development and measured it against the plan she had made at the beginning of the year. In this tiny house with a dirt floor, I witnessed the best family child care provider I have known anywhere in the world. As I thanked her for the remarkable things that she was doing with the children and made clear that I certainly had nothing to add to the wondrous environment and sensitive caregiving she provided, she said something very simple in reply: “This is only as it should be.” As I began to clamber up the canyon, I could hear Clemencia singing a local Ecuadorian children’s song and could barely make out the children’s voices in the distance.

Posted in Community Economic Development, Early Childhood Development, Ecuador, ICRI 30th anniversary | No Comments »

ICRI Video

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

We are thrilled to officially announce the release of a new video about ICRI!

The film is under five minutes long, but we think it gives a great sense of the depth and breadth of ICRI’s work with children and families around the world.

Click on the image below to watch the video on YouTube. Please take a look and let us know your thoughts!

Posted in Children's Rights, Community Economic Development, Early Childhood Development, Empowerment of Women and Girls, Europe, Ghana, HOMEY, ICRI 30th anniversary, Kenya, Maternal/Child Health, Nepal, Zimbabwe | No Comments »

Archives

Categories