Connecting with Children & Communities - COVID-19 response

Over the past 25 years, Pratham has worked at scale across India to address the education crisis facing the nation’s children and youth. Today, as we confront an unprecedented challenge, we are leveraging our experience and agility to navigate the pandemic and fulfill our mission.

The number of children, youth and adults not attending schools or educational institutions because of COVID-19 has spiked globally. In India alone, an estimated 300 million learners across all age groups are out of school right now. Though temporary, school closures have a significant impact on students, even more so in vulnerable and underprivileged contexts. Fear about health, disruption in livelihoods and stoppage of normal life – all lead to anxiety in families and communities. Children are not immune to tensions around them. In these times, it is important to engage children in activities that bring down stress, take minds off the crisis and gradually create an environment where learning can continue.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis across the country, Pratham has defined key response areas:

• Keeping people safe and informed
• Connecting with children and communities in a new way
• Partnering with governments to support learning
• Making resources available to all
• Responding to the crisis through targeted initiatives

Here is a brief overview of our efforts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02LbX-uGBI8

To support children, we have launched a daily engagement activity titled Karona, Thodi Masti, Thodi Padhai (Do it: A little fun, a little study) that helps continue learning, and having fun, even during school closure. Through a series of curated SMS and WhatsApp messages, we share text/video/audio content focused on hands-on learning activities. While the Masti videos engage students in art, music, and theatre, the Padhai ones focus on language, math, English and science learning. These messages are available 10 regional languages and English. Every day, our field teams connect with children and families engaging them in fun-filled, project-based learning activities, and further strengthening our one-on-one connect at the grassroots.

We are also working with 12 states governments across the country to enable remote learning. Our state teams are working side by side respective state governments to share digital resources, map learning content subject and grade-wise and ensuring its reach far and wide.

So far, we have reached children in over 11,000 communities across 20 states in India through daily content.

The content is also being shared with more than 100 partners across the country and several collaborations are being explored across borders too!

We understand that these are difficult times, but we are striving to connect with children and communities by encouraging fun and sustained learning.

Here is a glimpse: https://youtu.be/Im2BYpe8ltw