Born Learning Campaign to impact 50,000 children.

Project Report: Born Learning Campaign to impact 50,000 children.

Goal:                                                              

To provide holistic development to children from vulnerable communities. This includes helping them develop their early learning skills and also compliment the program with the right nutrition as it is critical for their normal growth.

Target Population:

130 children aged between 0-6yrs from the quarry workers’ community in Hennur area of Bangalore were identified to be eligible for the support through the generous grant by MetLife.

Project locations;

-  Kogilu Bande

-  Hosur Bande

-  Agrahara

-  Hegdenagar

Key highlights:                                                  

• Under our ‘Born Learning’ campaign, holistic nutrition & early learning interventions were provided to the children of quarry workers aged between 0-6yrs.
• A Training session for Born Learning Centre (BLC) teachers & helpers was conducted & focussed on the children’s assessment, web preparation & preparation of educational materials.
• Assessment of children in all the BLCS; physical, cognitive, fine motor, language, social & emotional development.
• Health camp conducted for children and mothers.
• PTA meetings were conducted from time to time & parents were involved in the preparation of the early learning materials.
• Organised a Workshop on Human Rights & the Right to Education Act.
• Food festival/Nutrition Mela organised which catered to 200 children.
• Migration to regular school - Identified children from the BLCs who would move onto regular schools in the next academic year.
• Decreased childhood diseases by 40% in children due to the intervention.
• Free medicines, vaccinations and immunization services were provided to AN/PN mothers.
• Cultural Mela cum exhibition organised for the BLC children as well as those attending Govt. school. Over 146 children participated in this event.
• Child Protection Policy Workshop
• Health Growth Monitoring – assessment of the 5 key development areas.
• Home based care for children
• Door-to-door polio drop campaign – 315 children assisted.
• New BLCs – The success of these 4 BLCs have made us confident of the intervention & campaign we have on hand. We look forward to starting many more Born Learning Centres and reaching out to children in need.
• Increased participation & cooperation of local communities.

Long term plan for Born Learning:

Our goal is to create 500 Born Learning Centres impacting 12,500 children by March 2016. We wish to share best practices with the Government run-Anganwadis and ultimately streamline our Born Learning Centres with them.

SUCCESS STORIES:

SANIYA is the daughter of clay idol-makers. When the child was admitted to the Born Learning Centre, she was quiet & inactive without much movement. She always sat in a corner.

The Born Learning teacher investigated and found her to be severely malnourished. Her nutrition needs were immediately addressed at the centre and resulted in great improvement.  Her parents were summoned and counseled about her nutrition needs at home. She contacted the child’s parents and counselled them.

Today, Saniya is a happy & active child who loves taking part in outdoor games/activities. Her parents are grateful to United Way of Bengaluru, who is reaching out to kids like Saniya under their ‘Born Learning’ campaign.