Back to Basics Fostering Early and Primary Education of children through employee giving

Aman Kumar is a resident of Puso village, 12 km from the Sisai block of Gumla district of Jharkhand. He is enrolled at Anganwadi Centre in the village, which lacked proper infrastructure, and pre-school activities were rarely conducted. However, with regular interaction, orientation and consistent handholding support by the project staff to the Anganwadi worker, the situation began to improve but with the sudden imposition of nationwide lockdown in the month of March 2020 due to COVID-19, the process of learning for the children at anganwadi centre came to standstill. Hence, project team had to re-strategize the project in line with COVID-19 by promoting home based learning through creation of learning corner using local resources at home followed by orientation of parents to continue engaging with children at their homes. These orientations were conducted using blended methods by regular phone call and via home visits. Aman's mother used to turn up for all of the orientations and participate in the activities with enthusiasm. The project team also urged Aman's mother to set up a learning corner at home in order to keep learning continuity. The learning corner featured artwork created by the children, such as drawings, clay work, and other crafts, all of which added to the children's learning, and parents were encouraged to participate in their children's activities. Aman now has a new learning opportunity thanks to this learning corner. Aman could only recognize a few alphabets in Hindi before, but now he is combining them to form words, he can also draw or write with a pencil or chalk.His mother noticed this gradual improvement in Aman, and she decided to keep the learning corner updated throughout with the help of project team in line with the development domains. His two older sisters also helped Aman create new things and display it in the corner. Aman's mother also inspired other mothers in the locality to establish learning corners in their homes so that the learning process of the children does not stop. Ms. Deepti Kumari, Aman's mother appreciated the initiative and quoted "The learning corner developed at home to ensure that Aman learns proved to be a boon for Aman's educational journey. Aman was ocuppied in learning different things in his corner. The Anganwadi Worker and the project team from Save the Children India continuously were in touch through regular phone calls and also visited my home even in difficult situations whenever feasible to encourage Aman to do new activities."

Save The Children's Back to Basics project aims at improving quality and continuity in a child's experiences as they transition from early childhood care and education into the primary grade. This is being done by developing an ecosystem where continuum in educational experiences of children is prioritised at state programme and policy level. All the relevant stakeholders are targetted in Anganwadi Centres, schools, homes, and communities who enable each child to start early and complete their foundation learning. Efforts are being made to reach the most marginalised children (boys and girls) from diverse needs and backgrounds in Anganwadi Centres, schools and communities. This project envisages to empower boys and girls by creating a learning environment where all boys and girls feel valued and will have equal access to quality learning.Your monthly contribution of Rs.2920/- would support 5 children in their early educational journey and strenghthen the foundational skills.

Save the Children (SC) India is a member of SC Alliance, a global network that was founded by Eglantyne Jebb in 1919 during World War 1 to alleviate the starvation of children. SC started working in India in the 1960s and since then has been recognized as one of the leading child rights Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) of India. In 2004, the Indian entity of SC was established by registering under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 as Bal Raksha Bharat (literal translation of Save the Children). SC's mission is to 'Inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives' and its vision is to "envision a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, participation, and development." SC's self-conception, interventions and approaches are strongly guided by its values - "Accountability, Ambition, Collaboration, Creativity and integrity".As a leading child rights NGO, SC has projects in the sectors of Child Protection, Education, Health & Nutrition, Child Poverty, Humanitarian Relief and Disaster Risk Reduction. SC India's interventions help improving health and nutrition outcomes for children & mothers, improve the life skills and economic opportunities for adolescents and young girls and as well as improve learning outcomes for children, provide equal opportunity for children in street situation and help rescue children from child labor, child marriage, abuse and provide humanitarian support emergency situations.