PAKISTAN ALLIANCE FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD (PAFEC)
Volume 07 May- June, 2020
Message from CEO
Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Greetings from PAFEC!

I hope you, your friends and families are keeping safe in these difficult times!

PAFEC is committed to serving its members, and tries to remain in contact with you through sharing research-based knowledge and best practices about Early Childhood Development (ECD), by arranging webinars and online workshops for capacity building of ECD workforce. I am sure many of you had an opportunity to go through the resources and to attend the sessions. We urge you to spare sometime to benefit from these learning opportunities.

In continuation of these efforts to promote ECD, we are sharing the below newsletter, covering updates, news from PAFEC, a best practice from one of our members, some useful research articles published by the Center on Developing Child HARVARD UNIVERSITY, UNICEF and by some other agencies. The articles cover topics like how to help families and staff build resilience during the pandemic, breastfeeding safely during the COVID-19, ways to help keep your child’s online experiences positive and safe, vaccinations during COVID-19 - what parents need to know, COVID-19 and children’s rights, impact of music on ECD.

I hope that you will benefit from this newsletter, enjoy reading the contents, give your feedback to improve it, and also contribute to this effort.
Happy Reading and Stay safe!

Khadija Khan
CEO, PAFEC
News & Updates
Workshop on the Use of ECD Kit

Dr . Relindis Yovsi, the ECD Consultant at UNICEF) organised an online workshop in collaboration with Pakistan Alliance for Early Childhood (PAFEC for the implementing partners of the ‘ Parental Package for ECD-Key Family Care Practices’  on the use of the ECD Kit being provided by UNICEF.”. The workshop aimed at building the capacity of Master Trainers, Frontline Educators, teachers, parents and caregivers on how to use the teaching and learning materials of the Kit. Moreover, Dr Relindis focused on the different developmental domains of ECD with an emphasis on brain development, strengthening the response for children ages 0-8 in emergency situations (e.g. COVID-19) and how to provide them with stimulation and learning materials to help restore a sense of stability and safety for young children and how to enhance early learning and development opportunities for young children by strengthening the linkage with play through providing variety of early stimulation and learning experiences that tap into multiple developmental domains.She introduced the teaching and learning materials showing one by one from the ECD Kit and explained how to use them to strengthen the knowledge and skills to deliver to creatively use ECD kit materials for early stimulation and learning of young children 0-8 years of age. The workshop was Co-facilitated by Ms. Khadija Khan( CEO PAFEC) & Zohra Nisar Hunzai (Communication for Development UNICEF) .
Increasing and Upskilling ECD Workforce in Pakistan

As part of its mandate Pakistan Alliance for Early Childhood (PAFEC) is continuously working to promote holistic development of young children in Pakistan. One of the key pre-requisites for promoting holistic Early Childhood Development (ECD) is to prepare qualified ECD workforce in the first place to provide quality ECD services to children and their parents. ECD workforce is ranging from initial caregivers, parents, teachers, health workers up to policy makers. PAFEC is working on this agenda from different angles including ECD policy formulation & advocacy, awareness of general masses, networking and capacity building of the above mentioned ECD stakeholders.

Recently PAFEC has been awarded a grant by the Foundation Open Society Institute(FOSI) to work on increasing and upskilling ECD workforce in Pakistan in collaboration with public & private universities and training colleges. The overall purpose of this project is to contribute to universalising holistic ECD/ECCE in Pakistan, by working with the public and private universities and Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) in four provinces of Pakistan, to build the next generation of ECD workforce, tailored to the National Curriculum of Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE). The expected impact of this project in the medium term is increased quality and quantity of ECD workforce in Pakistan.

The project will play a critical role in professionlising ECD sector in Pakistan by building capacity of public universities and teachers training colleges to develop well trained human resource for ECD. The main expectation is that some of the partner institutions will gradually become specialised centers of excellences in the field of ECD/ECCE, providing research opportunities to develop a strong link between theory and practice, which is relatively new in Pakistan. This initiative will also encourage many aspiring youths to join this sector, injecting new blood and making economic as well as quality academic impact for the society. 
Transforming Society Through ECD & Informed Parenting

U NICEF and PAFEC has agreed to collaborate and run a project that aims to transforming the society through the promotion of Early Childhood Development (ECD) and informed parenting. The core component of this project was to pilot the Parental Package for ECD and Key Family Care Practices developed by UNICEF.The pilot area constituted the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

I n order to cope with the pandemic and lockdown situation, majority of the partners had opted to start online sessions for FLEs to train them on key family practices in April. 12 out of 20 partners had completed their planned trainings for FLEs using online media in April and May. Two other partners (Rupani Foundation and Fazal Foundation) continued FLE training sessions during the month of June. Another partner (Allama Iqbal Open University), plans to conduct online trainings for FLEs during July. Rest of the partners are waiting for COVID-19 situation to improve when they will conduct face-to-face sessions, as use of online media is not feasible for them.

Towards the end of June, those partners who completed FLE trainings, were asked to identify parents’/caregiver groups through the FLEs and conduct baseline survey for 10% of population. Nearly one third of the partners have completed the baseline surveys through FLEs. Whereas most of them have planned to conduct the baseline in July. Hence, a total of 768 respondents in three categories of parents/caregivers, youth leaders and community influencers have been surveyed. Partners will continue conducting the baseline during July. It is anticipated that, the expected sample size of 1500 can be reached towards the end of July.

Webinars

PAFEC in partnership with Rupani Foundation has initiated webinars on Childhood Matters, engaging experts in this field.On the left side of the table are the details of the webinars taken place so far. Details of the webinars are as follow:
Best Practice

Early Childhood Care and Education at NDIE


“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all” – Aristotle

The power of Aristotle’s words goes right to the depth of Certification in Early ChildhoodCare and Education offered at Notre Dame Institute of Education, Karachi. The institute aspires to build the love for teaching and learning in young minds through heartfelt experiences for early year practitioners and parents.

Children are full of colorful and vibrant spirit. When given ample opportunities to explore, succeed and paint, they will flawlessly paint their tiny little worlds along with your elderly
beige and grey world. To ensure young ones are given appropriate likelihoods to grow and develop holistically, it is essential for key persons working with children to have sufficient knowledge of young learners. Keeping this fact in mind, participants enjoy the flavors of diverse topics of early childhood development during the course. Those working with young children should feel the same energy and enthusiasm. Therefore, throughout the sessions,participants are given ample opportunities to laugh, be challenged, and be delighted.

Our early years partakers see a transformation in themselves by stating:

“Something has improved in my knowledge, understanding and attitude. Now to keep my
children’s creativity as a souvenir, I would rather cover the floor and walls with cloth or
plastic.”

“The ECCE course at NDIE ignites the ignition of sensitivity. Teaching young minds is not
only about delivering a lesson or ensuring that a regular routine is followed so that children
are aware of etiquettes and the basis of literacy.

Instead it is also about caring and empathizing so that a child’s individuality grows. Their creativity and their ability to think outside the box take its roots into the soil whose gardener is their ECCE teacher.”

The magnificent journey of learning together and nurturing the process of devotion to
discover new knowledge and encourage trainees in exploring unknown dimensions in their
own thinking minds brings ultimate contentment to our souls.

Anisa Rehan
ECCE Coordinator, NDIE
PAFEC | www.pafec.org ]
Pakistan Alliance for Early Childhood, Office 4C, Plot 29, Old USAID Plaza, Block A, A.K.M Fazal-Haq-Road, Blue Area, Islamabad
Ph: 051-8730495, Cell: 0308-8820393