Dubai Cares, part of Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, has announced a three-year program set to bring Early Childhood Development (ECD) support to 500 disadvantaged children in Peru aged between the ages of 0 and 3. The program, which is being implemented in partnership with local NGO Kusi Warma, provides training and coaching to 351 families of children below the age of 3, through project technical team and community agents at the ECD centers, as well as through home visits. In addition, the program provides training to 32 community agents on topics such as health, nutrition, education and protection.

The AED 1,836,750 (USD 500,000) program aims to help consolidate Kusi Warma’s Model of Comprehensive Care for Early Childhood in Peru (MAIPI) Centers, in the nation’s heavily rural Turpo and urban marginal Ventanilla districts. It is set to reduce ‘growth delay’ among infants in the target districts, which is characterized by stunted physical, psychological and social development. The program also provides support to 14 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centers to ensure continuity of operation, and encompasses parental education on health, nutrition, early education and safety. In addition, the program involves capacity-building of communities and local authorities, as well as raising awareness of the rights of pre-school children and of the responsibilities of caregivers and authorities in ensuring those rights.

Speaking about the program’s significance, Annina Mattson, Programs Director at Dubai Cares said: “Education plays a remarkable role in contributing to the overall physical, psychological, and social development of a child. However, for many in Peru’s rural and urban areas, the early years of life are dominated by hardship, as access to adequate education, nourishment, clean water and other essential rights are sparse. I’m confident that our new program in Peru will serve as a powerful catalyst for improving early childhood practices, enriching the learning experience of young children as well as enhancing their surrounding environment.”

Commenting on the new program, Gloria González Navarro, Executive Director at Kusi Warma said: “We are very happy to have started this mutual collaboration with Dubai Cares. We value the decision of working together to support Peruvian children through the provision of early childhood development. We feel committed to excelling in our work so we can show evidence of our accomplishments in this field, in the hopes that this experience could be scaled and replicated to other areas of Peru that face the same conditions of poverty and exclusion, especially the rural and Amazonian areas.”

In Peru, poverty affected 21.8% of the total population in which 60% are children from the rural areas of the country. In Turpo District, 73% of people live in extreme poverty, while in the Ventanila District, 44% are classified as ‘poor’ or ‘extremely poor’.