Project report

Project Overview

This project aims to improve community based early childhood care, child health and education through effective collaboration with public service providers and local and community based organisations across 44 villages in Demosoe Township, Kayah State, Myanmar. The project focusses specifically on women and children under the age of five, local teachers and healthcare providers living in the 44 isolated rural villages in Demosoe Township, Kayah State.

Nearly one third of Myanmar's population of 54 million lives below the poverty line. Kayah State in Myanmar is considered to be one of the poorest and least developed. Issues of extreme poverty, severe food shortages, prolonged internal armed conflicts, restricted healthcare services, limited hygiene facilities and lack of basic education underlie many of the problems faced by people living in Myanmar, particularly women and children.

Government spending on health and education combined in Myanmar is estimated at 1.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) – one of the lowest in the world. This means only 30 per cent of children have access to pre- school services, and after pre-school, children in Myanmar spend only four years in education.

To ensure children living in the 44 villages of the Demosoe Township have improved access to community based early childhood care, education and health, CARE collaborates with local authorities, local partners and other stakeholders such as the Department of Social Welfare, Village Development Committee and Parent Core Groups to deliver the following activities.

 Establish community-based childcare services for early childhood development

• Establish Early Child Day Care Centers 
• Form Parent Core Groups 
• Manage Early Child Day Care Centers 
• Establish an Early Child Care Community Fund, and 
• Capacity building for teachers

Improve community awareness around the Convention on Rights of Children (CRC)

• Community awareness training sessions and workshops.

Strengthen health facilities, increase awareness around child health issues, increase immunisation coverage, and reduce child malnutrition

• Strengthen township health facilities 
• Strengthen awareness-raising on child health 
• Collaborate with State and Township level Department of Health on child immunisation campaign 
• Promote child nutrition, and 
• Home gardening/small scale livestock

Strengthen the primary school system

• Skills building for primary school teachers

Project Achievements

There have been a range of positive project impacts since the last reporting period in the following areas:

Access to education

• Three new Early Childhood Day Care Centre's (ECDCC’s) are currently under construction. 
• Renovation of one ECDCC is complete and four are currently under renovation. 
• Child friendly toilets and playgrounds were constructed at nine ECDCC’s, while seven are still currently under construction. 
• All previously completed ECDCC’s have been fitted with indoor and outdoor learning corners. The corners are used for different purposes such as reading, playing, construction of toys and playing musical instruments. 
• 29 teachers have received refresher training on child friendly teaching development and toy making practices using recycled materials. 
• 45 teachers were provided with capacity training focused on Convention on the Rights of the Child, gender and nutrition.
• A total of 132 quarterly parent teacher meetings were held in each of the 44 target villages. The meetings focused on sharing issues affecting children attending the centres and to enhance parents understanding of child care practices. Collectively, 4,319 parents and 60 ECDCC teachers attended the meetings.

Improved nutrition

• 873 boys and girls across 39 day care centres received healthy meals and received hygiene education.
• A review of the impact assessment on 131 households conducted in December 2014 indicates the nutritional status of children attending day care centres has improved by 45 percent, in comparison with July 2014 figures.
• In the same impact assessment, it was found 80 per cent of mothers who had given birth in the study period received two sessions of ante-natal care.

Access to healthcare and improved sanitation practices

• 14 neonatal babies had access to incubators provided to local hospitals by CARE. 
• All 44 villages received health and nutrition for children workshops. These workshops were conducted by Axillary Midwives. Community members received information on personal hygiene, pre–natal and ante-natal childhood nutrition, food preparation and immunisation. Overall, 3,569 community members attended the workshops. 
• 917 children (168 boys and 749 girls) were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella. According to township Health Department reports, local immunisation coverage sits at 97 per cent.

Partnerships

Established government and local district partners continue to implement Strengthening Early Childhood Education project activities within the 44 villages.

Monitoring and Evaluation

CARE Australia routinely assesses progress on all areas of the Strengthening Early Childhood Education project and reports regularly to assist in making recommendations on any identified areas requiring improvement or adjustment.