Starting from the first few years of life to adolescence, a child goes through their cognitive, behavioral, physical and emotional development. The importance of a healthy, encouraging and child-friendly environment during this developmental phase is often ignored by the parents and the communities due to having limited knowledge and awareness. The situation is exceptionally challenging for parents in urban slums where households mainly focus on earning livelihood and where community support and services are scarce. With poor infrastructural and service-related problems, children in urban slums often grow up with no sense of privacy, high rates of malnutrition, early drop out from schools or no schooling at all, increased rate of child marriage, certainty of child labor, and increased availability of drug and abuse.
Duronto, the spirited soul, aims at ensuring school readiness and quality education for children from underserved communities through providing them with early childhood care for psychosocial development; engaging school age children in extra-curricular activities to develop 21st century soft skills in them; empowering adolescent girls through rights-based knowledge to face social barriers; and supporting students in formal and vocational education through providing them with scholarships.
In alignment with SDG 4: Quality Education, the project has five major components – preschool activities for 3-5 years old children, afterschool activities for school aged children, adolescent girls club for 9 –18 years old girls, scholarships for students to sustain at formal schools, and educational awareness activities for parents.
The project is funded by Give2Asia for the year 2021-22.