‘Kawadgarbo Initiative’ is a project that aims to pilot a model to increase ECCD service coverage in remote ethnic minority areas. The program plans to set up a local capacity building network, develop and distribute child-centered ECCD resource packages, and establish self-governed community ECCD centers to ensure the provision of effective and relevant ECCD services to children. The 1st phase of this project is 2 years from 2015 to 2017, and is located in Heqing County, Shangri-la County and Deqin County of Yunnan Province. This project is funded by UBS Optimus Foundation (www.ubs.com/optimus). The foundation has a strategic partner - China Social Welfare Foundation. Right To Play China and Humana People to People China implement the project.

The project leader of HPP’s part of the Kawadgarbo Initiative - Li Yanmei - is a young and very much determined woman. She is a Han Chinese from a small town in Yuxi City in Yunnan Province,. Although she is short and tiny, she is a very capable person, and she is a very good dancer. When she works, she works without a thought of herself, because she loves the people who live in this remote place, no matter who and how old they are, especially these lovely children.

In early November, Shangri-la is already very cold. The three girls Li Yanmei, He Yingli and Li Jing took materials and goods they had prepared, rented a van which could be driven on the mountainous road and started to visit 14 preschool classes in Shangri-la and 3 classes in Deqin. Parents’ meetings were also organized for each class. The three girls usually started preparing for the visit at 6:00 am. They carried the materials and goods which would be sent to the preschools. They ate some bread as their breakfast in the van in order to arrive at the preschools earlier. Usually the closer preschools were around 100 km away from them, and they needed to arrive there before 9:00. The parents’ meeting was best to be held at 9:00. The preschools which were further away were around 140 km away from them. They would try to arrange the parents’ meeting to be held at 10:00. After lunch, they would go to another village and the parents’ meeting was held at 2:00. If there were preschool classes in adjacent villages, they had to arrange the last parents’ meeting before 5 when the class finished. Therefore, they needed to hold 3 parents’ meetings in 3 villages for each day and they finished visiting all of the preschools in little  more than one week.  

The first stop was Laolufang Preschool Class in Dongbaer Village, Sanba Township, Shangri-la City. An appointment was made with teachers and villagers that the parents’ meeting was to be held at 9:00. They drove around two hours for 80 km before they arrived at Dongba Village Committee, and then there were 7 more km from the committee to Laolufang village. The road was very difficult to drive. They borrowed the preschool teachers’ little truck, carried the materials and goods onto the trucks and drove the last stage of their journey to the preschools. When they arrived, the parents of 20 students were already there. After several minutes of arranging the meeting venue, the parents’ meeting and training started. During the meeting, parents were very active. The health knowledge content in this training was designed based on last month’s health check results. Parents paid high attention and even 3-4 villagers without children in the preschool joined our work.  

In order to educate children to have good hygienic and living habits, in our opinion, parents’ example is the best driving force for children to build up new ideas. So during the training, we lead parents to influence children with their own behavior and habits. Children have sharp observational skills, strong curiosity and rapid learning capacities. They learn from their parents’ behavior. Parents’ exemplary role is very significant to children and they influence children’s self development all the time. Our task is to enable parents to know the importance of example. When they bring up the children, they should encourage and lead children in a good way all the time from aspects of their psychology, behavior, health, hygiene and environment protection.

In order to achieve this - after the training - project leader and staff provided the parents with living and cleaning substances such as toothpaste, tooth brush, liquid detergent, soap etc which they had brought to the village. We hope that through guidance, they can gradually pay attention to and establish good living habits so as to set good examples to children.

After this meeting, the three girls continued to go to Daogu Preschool Class and Lading Preschool Class and organized parents’ meetings. They finished the work at night and stayed in the village for the night to continue the work tomorrow. The condition in the village was harsh, but because of their commitment, they do not care about being tired. They only look forward and live a life which is meaningful every day.