'Holistic Development'for 300 Poor Kids in India

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your donations!! Your support is making a change in the play & learn centers and study center of IDEA .

For the overall development of the children we adopt a Holsistic approach to education which focuses on addressing all of the needs of a child’s life: emotional, physical, relational, intellectual, creative and spiritual. Though we know that the first 6 years of a child’s life is the most important period of brain development, underprivileged communities do not give much importance to pre- school education. Especially if the play schools are not in a good condition they do not prefer to send the children there. Private pre-schools are too expensive for them to afford too.

The word Anganwadi means "courtyard shelter" in Indian languages. They were started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated child development scheme(ICDS) to combat child hunger and malnutrition. It is basically a play school where children under six years are enrolled. There are many anganwadis in India, but most are in very bad condition.

In one of our project area 4 Anganwadis were in one premises .These centers provide outreach services to poor families in need of immunization, healthy food, clean water, clean toilets and a learning environment for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. However it was observed during a survey  that the infrastructure of the place where these 4 Angawads were run was in very bad condition. The passage was dirtied by the stray domestic animals since there were no barricades on safety wall. The plinth of the school passage was also little high for the small children and the incidences of falling down were frequent and it was unsafe for the children. It was also noted that the basic facilities like toilets and water were not available for these Anganwadi. Due to limitation of funds from the Zillaparishad, the anganwadis were facing inadequacy of education and paly material. Although the anganwadi staff and helpers were working dedicatedly, non-satisfaction amongst staff & parents of the children attending the schools was prevalent. This was affecting the teaching & enrolment of the children to anganwadi.

The supervisor of these angawadis and Tarun Mandal (local youth group) approached IDEA requesting provision of play and educational material. They also requested to take up the infrastructure development of these anganwadis especially the toilet construction. The mandal assured their participation. We have decided to intervene and undertake the infrastructural development of these anganwadis. Safety grills, wash basins, water tank, tap facility and toilets for the Anganwadis were provided. The water connection for the same was provided by the efforts of local mandal. Similarly indoor and outdoor play material like swing, slide, tricycle, see-saw, basketball, modeling clay, pyramid puzzles and education material like plastic animals vegetables, number puzzles, charts etc.were also given according to the need of the school.

This has helped in creating conducive environment in the school and making learning more fun based. The children are happy and excited to come to school now. Within 2 months of completion of the development work the enrolment of these anganwadi has increased remarkably. The teachers also expressed that due to this facilitation they are able to deliver qualitative teaching and effective learning for overall development of their anganwadi children. The parents of anganwadi children also seem to be happy, since they find the new school environment more healthy and safe. As assured, the maintenance of the infrastructure is taken care by anganwadi and the local leader from the community.  This has ensured the sustainability of the activity which is a mark of success achieved thorough participation and ownership by the community.

Thank you dear donors..Thank you for helping us to lay better foundation for the future of  many poor children.