Giving every child a head start

Community owned centres provide safe, healthy and joyful environments to ensure hopeful futures for pre-primary children. Shubhi Vijay & Lukhimai Linnebank report from Bihar.

The early childhood years between 0 and 6 are critical for the physical, social, emotional, cognitive and language development of young children. Studies have found that the learning capacity and value orientations of children are largely formed by the time they reach the age of formal schooling.

In India, the vast majority of young children are entering primary schools without participating in Early Childhood Development programmes; many lack the right foundations for later learning.

AKF’s work on Early Childhood Development (ECD) in India focuses on improving the learning levels of pre-primary children from poor and marginalised communities. By strengthening existing Anganwadi centres and establishing new community owned ECD centres, young children can learn in a safe, healthy and joyful environment. Here, they are surrounded by warm and responsive interactions.

AKF also enhances the capacity of local ECD professionals by facilitating training to ensure that pre-primary children are equipped not only to learn, but to thrive in school.

AKF is committed to ensuring that parents and caregivers possess the knowledge, skills and confidence to support their children’s overall development from an early age. Affordability and contextual relevance are acutely considered when providing guardians with ECD support strategies.

For over 30 years, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has worked with governments and communities to ensure that young children have a good start in life, especially those living in some of the world’s most remote and marginalised places.

In 2017, AKF’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes benefitted close to 280,000 children ages 0-8 worldwide.

AKF’s ECD work in Bihar, India is supported by the Rizwan Adatia Foundation.