Bhutan becomes the first country in Asia to pilot the Caring for the Caregiver programme. The education ministry and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are piloting the programme in Trashigang, Tsirang and Punakha. They will train 75 Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) facilitators and district education officers to promote the health and wellbeing of caregivers.
Caregivers have a large impact on children’s education and development. Their wellbeing is critical in achieving optimal child development. To address the issue, UNICEF developed a training module to encourage families to support and protect children.
And this is where ECCD facilitators come in. It is to give them skills to intervene.
“Children, from parents having some issue, are not much active when they reach our centre, so far we are unable to detect their problem, but now we learnt some skills on how to handle such situation; starting from the way to approach, discussing the issue within and how to solve the problem suitable to the parents,” said Yeshi Lhamo, the Gongthung ECCD Facilitator under Yangnyer Gewog in Trashigang.
“Until now we are trained to focus more on child safety, skills to teach children and the importance of child education. But the most important thing is to educate the parents on the importance of childcare, although we have parenting education in the centre, today I learnt more about educating the parents,” added Kelzang Dawa, the Gengkhar ECCD Facilitator under Udzorong Gewog in Trashigang.
The training materials will be part of the parenting education manual developed by the ministry and UNICEF.
“It is very important to have a good parent environment; if they have a good family life, naturally the children will be healthy, so in order to make good parenting, the facilitator will assist the parents to lead a healthy family, which will ultimately have a greater impact on their child development,” said Sonam Choden, the Deputy Chief District Education Officer in Trashigang.
The three districts were selected to ensure regional representation. The training resources will be further improved before the programme is rolled out nationwide.
Sonam Darjay, Trashigang
