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Pan Suhong received an unexpected letter from New York, post-marked with the United Nations emblem on the envelope. With translation help, Pan soon realized it was a response to a note she wrote to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon two months ago expressing her community's appreciation of an early childhood development (ECD) project supported by UNICEF and the All-China Women's Federation.

Pan is the Party Committee Secretary of Mawangmiao community in Xiangyang, a city in Hubei Province, preserved in the ancient style dating back more than 2,000 years. Home to nearly 3,100 households, Mawangmiao was chosen in 2013 as one of 40 pilot sites for a community-based ECD programme in Hubei, Hunan and Hebei provinces, where there are many children affected by migration. 

The programme aims to give every child the best start in life through equitable access to good-quality services for children aged up to 3 years and their families in resource-poor communities. Through the programme, ECD centres located within communities were refitted to be child-friendly and began operating in August 2014.

©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong Pan Suhong, Party Committee Secretary of Mawangmiao community in Xiangyang, a city in Hubei Province, shows a letter from the United Nations and an autographed photo of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Like other community ECD centres, the one in Mawangmiao community was equipped with children's books, toys and an ECD kiosk, which is an offline version of the UNICEF-supported parenting website. Almost instantly upon its opening, parents and their children swarmed into the centre, thrilled with the many activities, including book reading, music sessions and games. For most children, it was their first chance to slide, ride a toy bike and make colourful pictures. Caregivers can also learn some skills to play with their children at home.

“Unlike the private early child learning centres, which are usually expensive and operate during limited business hours, our centre opens daily to every family in the community and is free,” said Pan. “What's more, there is no rote learning. All activities are child-centred to tap into children's interests.”

The overwhelming positive feedback from parents prompted Pan to write a thank-you letter on behalf of the community to the global head of the United Nations. She sent a translated version, which included work records and pictures of the learning centre, in January.

“The establishment of the centre helps raise parents' awareness about the importance and necessity of early childhood education and develop scientific parenting methods. All the parents speak highly of the services offered by the centre…. Our community will take this precious opportunity to improve our parenting standards and spare no efforts to improve the early childhood education and scale it up,” reads Pan's letter.

Parents and volunteers from other pilot sites have expressed similar sentiments about the programme.

©©UNICEF/China/2015/Xia Yong A girl and her caregiver join activities at the ECD centre in Ai village, on the outskirts of Yichang City in Hubei Province.

The ECD centre in Ai village, on the outskirts of Yichang City in Hubei Province, is located in the compound of the Village Committee and far away from roads. Ai Cui'e, a volunteer at the village's ECD centre, praised the safe environment for young children to play and to find emotional support.

Many of the children in Ai village are left behind by parents who migrated to cities in pursuit of better-paying jobs. In some cases, parents come back to pick up their children after they turn 3 years or school age. Thus, most caretakers of children younger than 3 years in the village are grandparents, who typically are unable to provide adequate care and supervision, including emotional support, adequate hygiene and nutrition or sufficient guidance to prevent child injury.

“Compared with those children living with parents, most of the ‘left-behind' children are introverted and lag behind in learning,” Ai said. 

Yangyang is a 3-year-old girl living with her grandparents in Ai village. Her parents work in a coastal city and visit her once or twice a year. Yangyang's grandmother said the girl is shy and always feels lonely. But by joining the regular activities at the village ECD centre, she has learned many skills, like counting, and is better at communicating with others.

The programme's volunteers, trained by national experts, are also helping to promote positive parenting skills in rural communities, where children are often brought up by traditional methods that are sometimes inappropriate.

“For generations, we used to have the infants wrapped and tied up tight, stopping them from moving and kicking; however, I learned from the parenting kiosk that it has an adverse impact on children's growth. The traditional thought about child care was limited to feeding and the prevention of injury. But now we are advocating for education, loving care and nutrition,” said Yang Rong, a volunteer at the ECD centre in Lingbao village, Yichang city.

By the end of 2014, more than 100 volunteers from the 40 project sites had received two rounds of training, and around 1,000 children aged up to 3 years and their families had benefited from the programme, said Zhao Qi, an ECD programme officer from UNICEF China.

“In the next phase of the programme, we will provide tailored training to volunteers to deliver quality door-to-door services to families with difficulties, such as the families of senior citizens, who are not able to bring children to service centres due to poor health. Volunteers will also be encouraged to organize regular activities and promote positive parenting methods in communities yet to be covered by the programme,” said Zhao.

In Mawangmiao community, the United Nation's reply expressing appreciation of Pan's letter and an autographed photo of the UN Secretary-General are framed and hanging outside the community ECD centre.

“We have read and carefully noted the contents of your message and appreciate your kind sentiments,” says the letter from the United Nations.

“I simply wanted to convey our appreciation of the programme being operated at the grassroots unit like our community and wasn't expecting any reply,” said Pan. “With this encouragement, we are determined to continue delivering families with easy-to-access ECD services.”