Update

How your donations help In China
How introducing Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) centres
benefits everyone?
Tenzin was born five years ago in a rural Tibetan village. His father works in the
local mines while his mother farms and takes care of Tenzin and his little brother.
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25,000
Finding enough hours in the day for both work
and family can be a struggle for any parent.
For Tenzin’s mother, keeping an eye on two
energetic boys while farming is a challenge. “My
sons run everywhere, like the other children
here. They go to the fields to play in the dirt and
to the river on sunny days. But these places are
risky so I always worried about their safety.”
Tenzin cheekily adds, "Sometimes our parents
are so busy, they don’t have time to take care
of us. We often caused trouble – we let air
out of the tractors’ tyres."
Then last year, an Early Childhood Care and
Development (ECCD) centre started up
in their village with support from Save the
Children. And it’s been a success from Day
One with kids and parents.
Tenzin attends every day. “I go there to play
with building blocks, jigsaw puzzles and balls.
I like the games that the centre organizes," he
happily explains. And his mother points out,
"The centre is helpful for us parents. I leave
Tenzin there with complete trust, and I have
seen many changes in him. He talks more,
he pays more attention to cleanliness, he has
many new friends and he respects us with
good manners.”
Last year, Save the Children opened 18
ECCD centres like Tenzin’s in remote
areas of Yunnan, Xinjiang and Tibet. In
total, we improved access to ECCD classes
for over 25,000 young children throughout
China, while also raising parental
awareness about early childhood care and
development.
Child Guardian
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