Project Lead(s): Raquel Bernal
While there are government-run programs in urban centers, to now rural kids in Columbia have had available only a home-based daycare system run by women with little if any formal training.
Providing an integrated, two-stage intervention for children from 6 months to 5 years old is the idea behind of a project led by Raquel Bernal and Ximena Peña of Colombia’s Universidad de los Andes. The project is entitled "An Integrated Intervention Targeted at Deprived Pre-School Children in Rural Colombia" and it is a Transition-to-Scale grant.
In the first stage, facilitators of existing family (home-visiting) services for pregnant women and children up to 30 months old will be trained to promote effective mothering, including nutrition, child development, and interaction with the child.
In the second stage, local mothers running community nurseries will receive 160 hours of training in topics such as fostering child development and developmental milestones in children 24-60 months old, and activities to encourage executive functioning of the child brain. Crucially, both curricular improvements will be implemented along with regular coaching and monitoring visits by trained supervisors.
An estimated 4,800 children will have access to more supportive developmental experiences as a result of this project.