GOODWILL
SOCIAL WORK CENTRE, MADURAI,INDIA
Life skills-based hygiene education for School Children in rural and urban areas in India
An Appeal
for project partnership
I. Description and background:
The
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child,1998 states ‘the
child shall have the right to freedom to seek, receive and impart
information(article 12), has access to information and material which
are aimed at the promotion of his or her social, spiritual and moral
well-being and physical and mental health(article 17) and that the
education shall be directed to the development of the child’s
personality ,talents and mental and physical abilities to their
fullest potential(article 23). The study of the right of the child to
information is necessarily related to a child's development, the
processes involved in seeking information, the availability and
accessibility of sources of information, and the relevant legal and
social protection. The child's developmental process reveals that
information plays an indispensable role. The informational process
begins even before birth, and accompanies the child throughout
childhood and further stages of human development. Information
affects the physical, emotional, cognitive and social development of
the child .Despite the fact that the number of schools and
institutional homes for children in need of care in on the increase
and the increasing enrolment of children in the villages and urban
areas, the personality development of school aged children and the
problems they face in both the home and school settings are receiving
very scanty attention. . School is not just a place to learn how to
read, write and to do sums. It is also a social environment where
children can learn about health, how to relate to one another, and
how to deal with questions life poses them. This calls for the
development of knowledge, attitudes, values and the life skills
needed to make appropriate decisions and act upon them.
It
is certainly important that schools provide safe and healthy
environments for children to learn these things. They need schools
where they have access to proper water and sanitation facilities,
where they can practise the health-promoting behaviour they learn,
and the life skills that help them become healthy citizens,
physically, mentally and socially. They also need teachers who have
the attitude and skills to go beyond teaching how to read, write and
do sums. If we want to address the undesired school drop-out of
girls, this becomes even more important. Proper sanitation facilities
then need to be built for boys and girls separately. Girls need
support in the development of additional mental strengths and skills
that help them deal with their often disadvantaged position in
society as compared to boys. The quality of the environment
and the care a child receives from home, school and community exerts
a powerful influence on his or her physical and mental development
processes.
Promotion
of personal hygiene and environmental sanitation in schools therefore
helps children to adopt good habits during their formative childhood.
What children learn in school they can and often do pass on in their
families and communities, both at the time of learning and during
their lives as parents and grandparents. However, the learning
potential of many children and adolescents is compromised by
conditions and behaviours that undermine the physical and emotional
well-being that makes learning possible. In many countries, schools
are some of the most crowded places. These conditions facilitate the
spreading of micro-organisms that cause diseases. When water,
sanitation and hygiene conditions are poor, instead of safeguarding
children from the transmission of infectious diseases, school
environments are full of health hazards. Hence, education on health
and hygiene has to go hand in hand with physically safe and well-kept
hygiene facilities to make schools safe places for children’s
development.
Safe
and hygienic schools and effective education require the
participation of parents, teachers NGOs and civil society groups and
above all, children. At all ages, children and adolescents can be
engaged actively in learning experiences that enable them to practise
basic hygiene and sanitation and advocate it at home and in their
community. It is also important to focus on children because they are
the parents of the future. Life skills-based hygiene education can
help to create effective education and hygienic schools by giving
children not only knowledge but also attitudes and skills for coping
with life (hence the term life skills). Part of this coping is in
water, sanitation and hygiene and includes the learning of practical
hygiene skills. Life skills-based hygiene education helps children to
change behaviour and so reduce risks and prevent water and sanitation
related diseases. Teaching children through life skills-based hygiene
education materials involves the use of interactive and participatory
methods with room for information focused sessions and child-centred
sessions.
Life
skills-based hygiene education focuses on the development of
knowledge, attitudes and skills that support people/children in
taking a greater responsibility for their own lives. It helps
children to acquire and practise good health behaviours along with
the underlying knowledge and positive attitudes. It also helps
children to develop and strengthen their general interpersonal and
psycho-social capabilities or life skills. Life skills are abilities
for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal
effectively with the demands and the challenges of everyday life (WHO
2000). Examples of interpersonal and psycho-social capabilities (or
life skills) are assertion, negotiation, empathy building and
stress-coping skills. Life skills-based education addresses real-life
applications of knowledge, attitudes and skills, and makes use of
participatory and interactive teaching and learning methods. It can
be applied to many issues and aspects of life such as peace, human
rights, or the environment
Children
who live in villages and backward areas in and around Madurai,
Tamilnadu, India need a decent, secure, affordable home which is
fundamental to the realization of children’s rights. The quality of
housing affects girls’ and boys’ health and overall environment.
Their health and survival depends as much on healthy environments as
on health services. In fact, these children are particularly affected
by health related problems which are related to water and sanitation
and they are susceptible to diarrhoeal diseases, intestinal worms and
various eye and skin ailments. Inadequate living environments namely
environmental chaos, stress and parenting, poor housing, absence of
safe informal public gathering places, lack of easy access to
opportunities for safe play, absence of constructive opportunities
for young people, repeated exposure to violence in hazardous in
rural and semi- urban environment etc impact the quality of life of
children.
Our experiences in promoting environmental health rights among children:
The Goodwill social work centre has had wide previous professional and experience in undertaking rights based environment education and communication projects for rural children and youth in ten villages in the Narikudi village panchayat block, Kamarajar district, Tamilnadu, South India under the aegis of the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.(1994-1995),which was replicated in Therkutheru Villages, Madurai East Village panchayat union block, Madurai district, Tamilnadu, South India, funded by US based DuPont South Asia Limited, Madurai under Safety Health and Environment (SHE) award(1996-1998). The following strategies included.1. Setting up Children’s Environmental Rights Centre. 2. Designing a curriculum on Environmental Education. 3. Focus on environmental rights education & Training. 4 Training for village male and female Animators. 5. Enrolment of children (Girls and Boys) 6. Pre-assessment survey. 7. Time frame for Environmental rights sessions and media interventions. 8. Program implementation .9 Post evaluations. The environmental health rights program components comprised 1.rigth based education and training 2. Participatory training 3. Field study and exposure visits 4.Media interventions (Traditional and modern methods of communication applications). The above projects have indicated the following recommendations.
1. Being an innovative intervention action program for the children in villages, the responses and the level of participation of all children in the program were more encouraging and invigorating at every stage. In addition to the surveyed respondents, more children showed enthusiasm to participate in the program. Obviously enough, there is a imperative need for organizing similar programmes for children in the rural areas in villages in India and other developing countries, which will certainly benefit them for the present and the future 2. Longitudinal studies on media interventions in environmental rights education program for children are highly recommended for greater impact on them. Such programmes undertaken for children on a fairly longer period will certainly prove to be productively useful and meaningful to them. 3. It is highly recommended that this action research may be replicated and implemented in every village in the rural areas. There is a need to focus on future research in this direction. Further, specially designed environmental rights education may be organized for urban children particularly in slums and backward areas. 4. Studies on environmental health for rural children and children’s rights and sustainable development, combining research as a major intervention in these programmes could be attempted. 5. In line with the methods design adopted in the present research, studies on girls and young women’s participation in environmental rights and communication in villages in suggested. 6. Communication application in promoting environmental rights among children should be promoted and a variety of media could be used in making the program truly effective and enriching for the children. 7. It is essential that school teachers, informal youth leaders and volunteers in villages should be sensitized to the environmental rights of children and trained on communication applications for promoting environment related rights among the school and non-school children. 8.Most importantly, greening the young minds of children through promoting digital opportunities to have access to on line communication and information on environmental issues and threats affecting their lives and their environmental rights and needs in villages in India is an urgent need for the present and future generation.
II.
Our rights based programming to promote environment health among
children and youth in India
1.Children's
rights through artwork project-A rights based programming
combining children's rights and artwork
As
part of our Children's rights through artwork project supported by
ART VENTURE,Singapore, Goodwill social work centre has formed
'Children's rights through artwork groups' of girls and boys who are
in the 7-17 years of age with a view to building a holistic
understanding the United Nations Convention on the rights of the
child and various children's rights and the issues which affect
children,combing arts with a study of the UN convention on the rights
of children as a way to promote children’s understanding of
their legal status in society and developing art skills, improve self
confidence and enhance creative and enjoyment in the arts and to know
of their rights to childhood.Through the formation of artwork
groups a social awareness is created among the children
and local communities as well concerning various rights based issues
namely poverty,education,food and nutrition, health and shelter
,peace,discrimination,disability,child labour,armed conflicts,
sexual exploitation, environment,violence against
children,media,children in conflict with law.
Children
are trained in various forms of arts namely water
colouring,painting,pencil sketching, oil on canvas Painting,miniature
painting, cartooning and computer graphics,pottery painting,portrait
and figure drawing ,floor painting – rangoli and
kollam,crayons and oil pastel work,modern painting,clay
modeling,glass painting,Tanjore painting,pencil drawing, pot
painting and embossed painting, folk arts and
dances,which are used to portray and convey messages relating to
children's rights to survival,protection,development and
participation that are enshrined in the UN Convention of the rights
of the child. Children learn of the various issues and concerns which
affect them through their active
participation in the artwork.The most celebrated forms of folk arts
used in the training include Kuravan- kurathi Aattam(Gypsy dance),
Bharathanatyam(classical dance), Karagaattam(with a brass vessel on
head), Peacock dance,Dummy Horse Dance dance,Dummy Bull dance,
kavadiattam,kollattam(using two batons), Puppetry, Oyilaattam (Ribbon
dance), folk songs etc. In point of fact, the art painting and folk
art media serve as power tools to promote and propagate the rights of
children among the children and local communities. Children in these
artwork groups not only get themselves empowered but also
sensitise other children to their rights and needs and also
adults as to their responsibility in protecting and promoting the
ethos of 'Children First' through their artwork.
The
artwork of our children's groups may viewed at our web albums
and video links:
The
Children's rights through artwork is a unique project which is
aimed empowering children in the age group of 7-17 with
information on their rights,developing skills in them in arts
and learning to combine arts with the study on their rights and
inspiring them to discover their unique talents through a variety of
hands-on workshops in arts and crafts and folk arts. These children
put their creative energy into their artistic expression. They show a
high level of creativity in their artwork and a inner-connective
knowledge and awareness of child rights issues and concern which
affect them and children worldwide. Goodwill social Work Centre
believes that the art painting,murals,art models they make and their
learning of children rights through folk arts will make an impact on
the viewers and inspire them become more proactive in the protection
and promotion of children's rights,which is an adult obligation
.
2.GOODWILL'S
children give water a voice to promote the right to water in
International poster contests organised by NV-OC,USA,2008-
2009Through
our Children's Rights Centre our organisation is able to take up
children's rights through artwork supported by ART VENTURE,Singapore
and a Rain centre for local children and communities supported by
Nature's voice-Our choice,USA. A phenomenal achievement is that five
students from our children's rights through artwork programme were
selected as winners at the international poster contest 2008 on theme
'What Water Means in my Life' organised by the Nature's Voice-Our
Choice,USA. The following web album links may be viewed to see
our five International poster contest winners and
our winners at the preliminary poster contests held in
Madurai,Tamilnadu,India
Three
of our children from Madurai,India (out of six non US international
students) under our 'Children's rights through artwork project'
supported by ART VENTURE,Singapore have been declared
as International poster contest winners at the
Second annual International Poster Contest 2009 sponsored by
Nature's Voice-Our Choice,USA.
As
part of our art training programme for children we conducted a series
of poster contests on the themes 'Water and Culture" and 'right
to environment' for school children from February,15, 2009 to
March 10, 2009 in and around Madurai,Tamilnadu,India.Of 2440 posters
made by children, 966 posters were selected for submission to the
Nature's Voice-Our choice,USA for the 2009 World water Day
International Poster contest.It
is a proud moment for GOODWILL to make known that three children
under the Children's rights through artwork project have been
selected as international poster contest winners.
Of
3000 children from 8 different countries and throughout the United
States participated in the Second annual
International Poster Contest 2009 sponsored by Nature's
Voice-Our Choice ,USA. Of 12 children were selected as
International poster contest winners 3 children are from Goodwill
Social work Centre,Madurai,India. Our Three winners and their
winning posters can be viewed at our web album link:
An Invitation
to check out URL
http://www.naturesvoice-ourchoice.org/students-give-water-a-voice.html
from
the website of Nature's Voice-Our Choice,USA
It
is a proud moment for us to share this URL:
http://www.naturesvoice-ourchoice.org/students-give-water-a-voice.html
from
the website of Nature's Voice-Our Choice,USA, which contains
information on our children under our 'Children's rights through
artwork project' giving water a voice at the world water day
International poster contests 2008 and 2009 organised by the Nature's
Voice-Our Choice,USA. Five children from our project were selected as
International poster contest winners at the 2008 poster contest and
three children at the 2009 International poster contest. You may
please check out the video in the URL to see our children at artwork.
Please click on “Students awards and recognition” to view our web
album about the award distribution function organised by Goodwill
Social Work Centre,Madurai,India.
Our
experiences have shown that though these activities and services
which are being offered to boys and girls who hail from villages
and urban slums areas have impacted the quality of their life to an
appreciable extent and the extent of their participation in the
programmes is found to be fairly high, the need for promoting ‘Life
skills-based hygiene education for school aged children especially in
low and moderate income families in villages and urban areas is of
paramount importance.
Knowing
the importance of the promotion of good hygiene behaviours associated
with the prevention of water and sanitation-related infectious
diseases among children the Goodwill social work centre proposes to
launch ‘Life skills-based hygiene education to cater to the needs
of children in low and moderate income communities in and around
Madurai, Tamilnadu, South India and backward areas in and around
Madurai, Tamilnadu, South India. The beneficiaries will include
1.Children who belong to low
socioeconomic status families whose annual income is below 3722 Pound
sterling{Indian Rupees 300,000}. 2. Children who belong to Dalit
communities (socially oppressed or excluded classes in India) 3.
Children whose parents work in unorganised sectors, including
agriculture 4.Young people in dysfunctional families (Female headed
families, Single parent families etc.)
II.
Rationale of the Project:
- In general, children in rural and semi urban India lack the basic information on the life skills based hygiene. Promotion of life skills-based hygiene education in schools and institutional home care for children helps children to adopt good habits during their formative childhood.
- Schools in villages and urban areas do not concentrate on promoting life skills-based hygienic behaviours nor do they have environment and hygiene education in the formal or non-formal curriculum.
- Safe water and sanitation are essential for a healthy learning environment. Appropriate hygiene behaviour by all users children is essential to derive the full health benefits from the facilities.
- Children lack the opportunities to learn and explore their environment physically and intellectually.
- Children are easy to reach and indispensable component in achieving sustainable development
- Accessing children to life skills-based hygiene education will protect them from dangers and risks.
- It is a social facility enjoyed by the children in villages and backward areas in the cities.
- Life skills- based hygiene education and networking will attract children's attention and co-operation
- Children have the right to participate fully in life skills education and learn about water, sanitation and personal hygiene which protect and promote environmental health rights and well being.
- The programme will create a healthy and safe learning environment and help children to develop knowledge, attitudes and life skills - that is, skills to cope with life - that support the adoption of good hygiene behaviours and better health and eventually reach out to families and communities to stimulate safe hygiene and sanitation practices by all community members.
III.
Objectives of the project:
1.
To impart Life skills-based hygiene education to school children in
low and moderate
income families who are in the age group of 6-10 and 10-17.
2.
To provide participatory learning experiences to the children that
will aim to develop the knowledge, attitudes and especially
skills needed to take positive actions to create or maintain
hygienic conditions
3.
Prepare children to share environment related health information
with others on a child-to-child and child-to-community.
IV.
Project Location: The project will be undertaken in and around Madurai,Tamilnadu,India
V.Curriculum and lesson plans:
V.Curriculum and lesson plans:
The
centre will design and develop a curriculum on Life skills-based
hygiene education containing four major themes and sub themes as
shown below:
1.
Water, sanitation and waste
•
Water
sources in the school compound and
the community
•
Water
transport, storage and handling at
home and in school
•
Waste
materials, including human excreta
and rubbish at home, in the school
compound and in the
community
• Water
quality and purification
2.
Personal and food hygiene
•
Personal
hygiene
• Nutrition - Food hygiene, eating patterns,
water availability
3.
Water and sanitation-related diseases that
have an impact on health
•
Diarrhea
•
Skin,
eye diseases, dental problems
•
Worm
and lice infestation
•
Area
specific diseases, e.g. related to
arsenic
and fluoride pollution
•
Malaria,
Jaundice, Chikungunya etc
4.
Facilities for water, sanitation and hygiene
within schools, households and the community
•
Basic
knowledge about environmental hygiene
at home, in school and in the community
• Defecation practices at home, in school and in the community
• Operation and maintenance of household and school facilities
• Technical and managerial aspects of facilities at home and in school
• Defecation practices at home, in school and in the community
• Operation and maintenance of household and school facilities
• Technical and managerial aspects of facilities at home and in school
A
training manual will be prepared in English and translated in
vernacular which will describe the lesson plan for each topic
relating to life skills-based hygiene education for children. Each
lesson will detail the existing knowledge of the children, relevant
aspects that can influence the lesson, objectives, attitudes, life
skills and hands-on skills to be developed. The required knowledge,
required attitude, required skills and methods for each lesson
plan will be listed in the manual. In addition to lectures
participatory learning and teaching methods such as , Class
conversation, Concentric circles, Problem-solving discussions, Forum
discussion, Continuum or rope-voting, Calling numbers/Jigsaw puzzle,
Role-play, Brainstorming, Pantomime, Songs, Games, Demonstrations,
Voting, Ranking, and field visits will be carried out with the
whole groups of children. Curricula and lesson plans in life
skills-based hygiene education start from the children’s knowledge
and skills and the local beliefs, values, behaviours and conditions
that are most relevant for the local context.
VI.Duration
of the project:
The
duration of the project is 36 months. The project will be
implemented in a phased manner. It is estimated that the project
will cover 30000 children who are in the age group of 6-17 within a
span of three years. The total number of schools and Institutions
providing home care for children (both boys and girls) will be 50,
which are located with in the Madurai East and west Panchayat union
blocks including Madurai city, Tamilnadu,South India.
VII.
Organisation of the Project:
- Rapid needs assessment in the schools and institutions providing home care for children will be undertaken by our
project staff-Identifying schools and institutions-Identifying
groups of children for the Life skills-based hygiene education programmes -Selection of Educators for the project. - A curriculum on life skills-based hygiene Education’ containing a brief description of each unit of lesson, teaching methods to be used and the number of hours required will be designed in the local language(Tamil)-Our Educators will undergo intensive orientation training on the Life skills-based hygiene education, which will include both theory and practicals. In addition, short training courses will be organised for building individual capacity on 'Life skills-based hygiene education and role of school teachers and home care givers' for teachers and home care givers in selected schools/ institutions.
- Implementation of the educational programmes in each school and institution-Duration of the programmes to be determined-weekly and monthly.
- The Life skills-based education and training sessions will be held in the evenings, week ends and holidays.
- For each subject included in the lesson plan, the educators will conduct a pre evaluation to examine the existing knowledge among the children and after each unit of lesson , a post evaluation will be done. Evaluation instruments will be designed and developed for assessing the knowledge 'before' and 'after' our interventions.
- Learning methodology: Use of group work for participatory methods in the programmes.
- As a supplementary programme, the centre will organise free general medical check up camps, dental, skin care camps and eye check up camps for the children in collaboration with local Government and private hospitals, Madurai, South India. Treatment and supply of medicines will be provided to the children free of cost.
- The centre will organise advocacy to pressurize local governmental organisations primary health care centres to make water, sanitation and hygiene related facilities and services available for children in schools and institutions providing home care for children
- Monitoring and evaluation-Mid evaluation, Annual and post evaluation will be made during the tenure of the project.
- Documentation and Report writing
Note:
The project is designed as an intervention-oriented research within
the framework of quasi-experiemental.It will comprise pre and post
assessment surveys to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices
among the selected population. The primary data will be collected
from the participants through interview method. The data will be
analysed using elements of quantitative and qualitative research
approaches. In addition, the focus group discussions with children
will be made. The collection of data will result in the form a study
report which will be a useful source of information for replicating
the project elsewhere.
VIII.Expected
outcomes:
Life
skills-based hygiene education offers an effective approach to
equipping children with the knowledge, attitudes and skills that they
need to help them avoid risk-taking behaviours and adopt healthier
life styles. The expected outcomes will include
•
Development
of knowledge most relevant to the elements of life skills-based hygiene education being addressed;
•
Development
of specific psychosocial (or life) skills – such as assertion,
negotiation, empathy
building – most relevant to the local challenges to health,
hygiene, and well-being;
•
Development
of positive attitudes and motivation to use the skills and knowledge to promote health and hygiene;
•
Development
of necessary hands-on skills such as proper hand washing and use of latrines,
as well as skills in proper operation and maintenance of facilities
and, where relevant, building skills for construction of
facilities;
•
Opportunities
to model and practise the knowledge, attitudes and skills within the school
context and local environment.
Children
will have the skills to critically analyse local conditions and find
solutions that fit local means and culture. They will also have the
relevant knowledge to guide their actions. They will develop positive
attitudes to adopt and sustain a healthy life style during their days
in school and during the rest of their lives.
We
invite you to partner with us and offer your fund support for taking
up the above project for promoting and protecting the well being of
children in rural and urban areas in and around
Madurai,Tamilnadu,India.
A
detailed proposal along with a cost estimate of the budget will be
sent to international organisations,Corporates and philanthropists
who might be interested in supporting our cause.
BECOME A PARTNER OF GOODWILL SOCIAL WORK CENTRE AND SUPPORT OUR CAUSE!
Prof.Dr.J.Christopher
Daniel,M.A.,Ph.D
Executive
Director
Goodwill
social work centre
No:5,South
street Extension
Singarayar
colony,Madurai-625002
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