Children are born curious. They want to learn about their world and the people that live in it – ‘What is this colorful red block?’, ‘Can mom make that sound again?’. Children’s first experiences shape how their brain develops, and their brains are indeed growing faster during the first five years of their lives than it will at any other time. This is why good early experiences are so vital to a child’s cognitive, physical and socio-emotional development and this is why Volunteers Initiative Nepal is committed to support Early Childhood Development (ECD) centers and classrooms in the communities it is working in.
This month, VIN has distributed ECD pedagogical materials to two different schools of Jitpur community in Tarakeshwor so as to answer the needs of young children and create a child-friendly, fun, and stimulating environment for them. Overall, 220 items were distributed, among them a music box, dolls, toy cars, a tambourine, flags of Nepal, puzzles, and a very much needed first aid box to fix those little scratches that happen during playtime. What a lively ride this is bound to be!
It is our hope that Jitpur Secondary School and Saraswoti Basic School now have the learning materials and the equipment needed to cater to their 3- to 5-year-olds’ safety and love of learning and playing. A total of 60 children will benefit from these engaging materials which will stimulate all their senses – hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, smelling and moving – and lead them to develop new skills through the use of the Montessori approach. In the end, lighting a spark in children’s eager minds and making them feel safe is the first step to have them look towards the future with confidence.
– Marie Cadoux, EUAV Volunteer in Child Protection for VIN
Member of