By Chris Niles

NEW YORK, USA, 9 January 2012 – A quality education is the cornerstone of every child’s rights, yet across the developing world millions of children’s futures are stunted because they don’t have the opportunity to learn.

UNICEF is addressing this deprivation with an innovative approach that aims to remove barriers to success in primary school by giving pre-schoolers the knowledge to successfully enter first grade.

Called ‘Getting Ready for School: a Child-to-Child Approach’, the programme is a low-cost way to provide supplemental education to pre-schoolers, especially the most marginalized.

Learning from friends

The programme is succeeding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the poorest country on earth, and one with an entrenched cycle of exclusion from education. Half of adults there have either never attended school or only completed primary school.

“In class, I love to read, write and sing,” said Mariam, 5, who lives in Kinshasa, capital of DR Congo. She attends pre-school with a handful of young friends.

The unique part about the programme is that Mariam’s teacher is not much older than she is. Child-to–Child builds on the natural phenomenon of children learning from their older friends – in Mariam’s case, her neighbour Nefa Kabeya.

“It’s important to help the younger kids so they can avoid having problems in first grade. If they’re not well prepared in first grade they’ll never ask questions and won’t participate in class,” Nefa said.

© UNICEF video
In Kinshasa, DR Congo, 12-year-old Nefa Kebeya tutors two of her young friends through the UNICEF-supported Child-to-Child programme.

A successful pilot

The Child-to-Child programme was launched as a pilot programme in 2007 in partnership with the Child-to-Child Trust. Six countries participated in the pilot: Bangladesh, China, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Tajikistan and Yemen. It has proven successful in communities with strong community support, such as the Tigray Region of rural Ethiopia.

“The main reason for this is that the programme was designed to work within our culture,” said Maekelech Gidey, a UNICEF education specialist in Ethiopia. “It is our culture that neighbours work, eat and play together. The programme supports this, and that is why people can easily and happily participate in it.

Child-to-Child is filling a critical gap for pre-schoolers, giving them the social and academic confidence to begin their formal education on time and to stay with it. Ba-ati Primary School in Tigray is seeing the changes first hand.

“When I compare this year’s first graders to the last year’s, I can see a big difference. Ever since the Child–to-Child programme started, the children’s understanding has increased,” said teacher Tigist Araya.

In Bangladesh, 30 schools were selected for the Child-to-Child pilot because of their high drop-out and low school completion rates. In 2009, only 23 per cent of children between ages 3 and 5 attended pre-school.

Liton, 10, is making his own contribution to reversing that trend. Once a week he teaches two younger children the basics of reading, writing and counting. Guided by his own teachers, Liton makes lessons fun.

© UNICEF video
In rural Bangladesh, 10-year-old Liton (right) tutors his young neighbour Akhimoni.

Benefits to students and teachers

But the programme’s benefits go further than getting little ones ready for school. Since he’s been mentoring his young friends, Liton has discovered that, not only are his young charges improving in their studies, he is too.

“Since going into the Child-to-Child programme, I’ve learned a lot. My reading is much better. That’s been very good for me,” he said.

It’s also been good for Bangladesh, which aims to achieve universal primary school education.

“I have seen that enrolment has increased, school drop-outs have lessened in the areas that have the programme,” said Director General of the Director of Primary Education Shyamal Kanti Ghosh.

The programme is simple and cost-effective, which UNICEF and its partners hope will enable it to be expanded into more countries and regions and integrated into other UNICEF quality-education programmes.

“The most important thing for this innovation is that it’s less costly. And it is community-based, so everybody can see the changes. And the attachment of the teachers to the process is very strong,” said UNICEF Early Childhood Development Specialist Mohammad Mohsin.

By Chris Niles

NEW YORK, USA, 12 December 2011—Mohammad Azizul Islam, 28, is a trader in Chinipara, in the remote Rangpur region of Bangladesh. As a landless man, he has very few opportunities to make a living.

He wants his pre-school aged daughter, Akhimoni, to be educated and have a profession. Among his chief concerns is how he will pay for it.

At the moment, however, she is receiving an education. Once a week, she and another friend meet for classes that involve learning rhymes, counting and the alphabet.

“We study, play and do rhymes like ‘head and shoulders’ and ‘one little finger’,” Akhimoni said.

Stepping onto the education ladder

Pre-school is a luxury in most of Bangladesh, where fewer than 23 per cent of children aged 3 to 5 receive any type of early childhood education.

Chinipara is no exception.

“We live in a remote area. We have a lot of poverty here. All the students are children of day labourers and farmers,” Chinipara Primary School assistant teacher Sarkar Faruk Shana.

© UNICEF video
Akhimoni (left) is tutored by Liton, a 10-year-old facilitator in UNICEF's child-to-child programme, in the Rangpur region of Bangladesh.

For Mr. Islam, the chance to see his daughter step onto the education ladder, even before primary school, is very satisfying.

“When I was a child I had wanted to study,” he said. “In 1985, there was a drought in this area, and since we were poor I had to start working in the fields at a young age.”

A child-to-child approach

Ahkimoni’s facilitator at the school is not much older than she is; Liton is only 10. She is part of an innovative new UNICEF-supported programme that aims to prepare children, emotionally and academically, to go to primary school.

Called ‘Getting Ready for School: a Child-to-Child Approach‘, the pilot programme was launched in several countries in 2007. Its goal is to provide supplementary and cost-effective early learning to the most vulnerable.

The programme builds on the natural phenomenon of younger children learning from older children.

In March 2010, it came to 30 schools across Bangladesh selected for their high dropout and low school completion rates.

The programme is simple, cost effective and its benefits extend not just to the pre-schoolers. The facilitators also improve in their studies and find their increased responsibility earns them greater respect.

© UNICEF video
Pre-schoolers begin a class in UNICEF's child-to-child programme. The programme uses young facilitators, drawing on the natural phenomenon of younger children learning from their older friends.

Offering hope

Chinipara School has 15 facilitators and 30 teachers. The children who participate in the programme –– both students and facilitators – demonstrate a marked improvement over those who do not.

“At the moment we’re seeing that they are coming to school regularly, participating well in class and not dropping out. I believe this is a major achievement,” said Bangladesh’s Director General of Primary Education Shyamal Kanti Ghosh.

“Students who were facilitators in 2010 have moved forward a lot,” added Ms. Shana. “Their reading and their maths have advanced. I’m happy about that.”

Bangladesh is planning to expand the programme 30 schools at a time.

“The most important thing for this innovation is that it’s less costly. And it is community based, so everybody can see the changes. And the attachment of the teachers to the process is very strong,” said UNICEF Early Childhood Development Specialist Mohammad Mohsin.

The benefits of the programme are also very evident to Mr. Islam, who hopes that getting Akhimoni a good start for her education means that she will somehow, against the odds, be able to have opportunities that he was denied.

“I hope that Akhi will grow up educated. I hope to see her become a doctor. But I don’t know how to make it happen. I’m poor, how will I pay for her studies? I have hope but just hope isn’t enough,” he said.

© UNICEF/2009/Becker-Jostes
UNICEF Climate Ambassador Toriqul Momen, 15, from Bangladesh delivered a presentation on the effects of climate change in his home country during Youth Day at COP15 in Copenhagen.

By Joan Howe

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 10 December 2009 – Hundreds of children, including eight UNICEF ‘Climate Ambassadors’, wore vibrant orange-and-green t-shirts celebrating ‘Youth Day’ at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) here today.

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Youth Day activities at the UN Climate Change Conference

Youth-focused side-events took place outside the closed-door negotiations of government parties, turning the spotlight on the concerns of young people from around the world. The message of the young delegates was clear: “It is late, but not too late.”

Youth Day sessions covered topics from education as a catalyst for action to agriculture and intergenerational dialogues on disasters.

Climate Ambassadors from Bolivia, Haiti, Zambia and Bangladesh spoke passionately about the impact of climate change on the lives of people in their countries. The young people agreed that decisions made over the next week will have a lasting impact on future generations.

“The earth is not a gift but something borrowed, and we have to give it back to future generations,” said Darwin Peña, 17, from Bolivia.

Youth taking action

Marie Moïse Louissaint, 16, from Haiti and Kondwani Banda, 17, from Zambia are part of a youth movement that has helped raise awareness and involved affected communities in taking concrete steps – such as tree-planting – to mitigate the devastating effects of deforestation and over-farming.

“I believe that we, the children, can do a lot for our respective communities,” said Kondwani. “Let’s get out there and spread environmental information. It may just be turning off a light bulb or telling one friend about climate change but it is a step – a step towards a beautiful, sustainable and renewed future. Thus I urge you to start now. Let’s not wait for the leaders because it begins with us!”

Government representatives at the conference confirmed that the voices of young people are making a difference in the fight against climate change.

Maldives Environment Minister Mohamad Aslam praised the public demand for leadership expressed by the “voters of tomorrow.” He credited young people for inspiring COP15 to focus on agreements that highlighted positive targets and what can be done.

‘The defining issue of our time’

To a standing ovation, Ruchi Jain, 23, a member of the Indian Youth Climate Network, described the strength of people coming together to raise their voices and bring a message to governments around the world. She spoke about the “fragile and honest” trust she had in the leaders gathered in Copenhagen.

Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Yvo de Boer pondered quietly before replying that trust needed to be earned.

The Director of the UN Climate Change Support Team, Janos Pasztor, confirmed that for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, climate change is “the defining issue of our time.” Because future generations will be the most affected, he said, young people need to be heard by leaders at COP15.

In the deeply felt push to galvanize efforts against climate change, Thomas Spencer, a youth delegate from Germany, told the panel of leaders “the first ever global generation” recognized the gravity of the challenge. He added that they also know positive change is possible.

UNICEF’s child-friendly spaces use movement and dance to help children heal
©UNICEF Video

By Quinn Lundberg

NEW YORK, USA, 21 July 2008 – The tragedies of war and natural disasters leave children struggling to cope with deep psychological wounds. One of the ways that UNICEF and other organizations have helped to alleviate children’s emotional scars is through dance and movement.

UNICEF Child Protection Specialist Amanda Melville views movement and dance as a way for children to reconnect to their normal lives after emergencies.

“It can be a way of getting people back in touch with what’s happening in their bodies, but also a way of releasing some of that stress,” she said. Dance and movement have been shown to alleviate symptoms of aggression, anxiety and depression.

Preserving cultural traditions

In addition to providing children with opportunities to draw, sing and perform in plays and skits, UNICEF-supported child-friendly spaces in post-emergency situations around the world make use of movement and dance. Such programmes emphasize the importance of helping communities retain and strengthen their cultural traditions.

Girls and boys dance outdoors at a UNICEF-supported summer camp for vulnerable children in the village of Vasyshchevo, in Ukraine. The children include orphans and second-generation victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
“We have to validate and base our work with movement and dance on the local traditions as a starting point, and that’s really important,” said Ms. Melville. “If we want to connect with something that is meaningful for the children in those situations, you have to start from where their traditions are coming from.

“Very often, what you see is that cultural traditions such as dance get disturbed or disrupted by the emergency,” she added.

Means of expression

At the same time, dance and movement can transcend cultural boundaries to offer a universal language for children to express their pain. Even children who are unable to communicate verbally can often express themselves through dance in a safe environment.

Through the use of dance and movement in child-friendly spaces – informed by more than 60 years of experience by psychiatrists and psychotherapists using movement as a therapeutic tool – UNICEF hopes to provide children in distress with an alternative to their isolation and a way to reclaim their childhood.

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