Education

Education | Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) | Child Protection and Participation

ECCD is a multi-sector approach with a rights-based perspective that focuses on the early years in a child’s life and lays the foundation for learning and achieving in school. The goal of our ECCD program is to ensure that children from birth to 6 years reach school age healthy and well-nourished, intellectually curious, socially confident and equipped with a solid foundation for lifelong learning.

MSKS approach to the ECCD programme is child friendly, family-focused and community-based. It consists of a two-dimensional approach that focuses on improving the physical and mental well-being of the child.

  • Home-Based Intervention
  • Centre-based Intervention
The overall goal of the programme is enhancing the family and community or neighbourhood environment in which young children develop; this is necessary to reduce the vulnerability of young children, especially those living in deprivation, and improving the care and developmental support that they receive. This can be best accomplished by preventing problems and enhancing children’s resilience as well as the acquisition of skills through responsive care-giving, setting developmentally appropriate expectations, and providing stimulation to help them achieve their potential in all areas of development.

MSKS has also been providing long-term support to the Government-run Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). It assists in building the capacity of the teachers and enhancing the learning environment of the children by promoting creative educational materials, and organizing medical camps thus providing an enabling environment for the children to grow. 

With over 35 years of experience in early childhood care, the organization with its demonstrated pedagogy reached out to more than 15000 children by training the NGO partners trainers and strengthening the anganwadi’s across 14 blocks of Gopalganj district by training the anganwadi workers and village level volunteers. As a resource agency, We plan to share the pedagogy with many more people and thus reach out to larger geography. 

Facts About Child Protection and Participation

Though children and youth form the majority of the population in the communities in which they live, they have traditionally been excluded from decision-making. At MSKS, the role of children and youth is focused more intensively and they are being looked upon as change agents, who are active contributors to the well being and development of the family as well as the community. It implements programme in a way that increases the role of children, youth and parents by ensuring that they are the primary protagonists in programme implementation.

Child protection and well-being consists of reducing risks of violation of child rights, making children’s rights a reality, and creating an enabling environment that supports children’s positive development. In this regard, MSKS. has initiated a children’s club in all its villages, to strengthen the activities of child protection and increase child participation. MSKS conducts regular trainings of stakeholders on child protection guidelines and the violation of child rights. Those children who are at risk or who have been victims of child abuse/exploitation are referred for counseling.

MSKS has also succeeded in creating children and youth federations at various levels and ensuring their representation in the decision making process in all its community development programmes.