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A National NGO: Phulki
A national NGO, PHULKI is playing a leading role in managing and developing the approaches. They have worked in slum areas. First initiated in 1993 with the sweeper colony of Gulshan Taltala Park it was in 1996 replicated in Kallyanpur pora. The programme begins with 10 children aged 8-11 years who are selected and trained by Phulki staff. They are taught about primary and preventive health care, personal hygiene, nutrition, immunization, child rights, gender issues, use of safe drinking water and sanitary latrines. Each of these children is then assigned to pass on what they have learnt to 10 of his or her brothers or sisters and friends. They must also involve friends' families and their own family in the learning and action. In this way children are able to mobilise their community to take initiatives to improve their own living conditions. Through this approach, within a span of 3 years Phulki has brought revolutionary changes in the lifestyle of about 2,500 people.
The current director writes:
“Phulki has adopted the approach of the Child-to-Child Trust as a concept but not as a programme. It means that Phulki is not rigid with the approach in the issue of health safety or hygiene promotion only. Realising the socio-economic and cultural status, we have to go for further steps in focusing or selecting the Child-to-Child issues, e.g. dangers of neglecting boys’ education, child rights (survival, protection, participation, development), road safety, etc.
Phulki has adapted the basic theme of the Child-to-Child Trust while introducing the CtC concept such as the Child-to-Child matrix and six steps, but of course considering our cultural context.
We aim for sustainable development of our underprivileged community through this Approach. Considering our literacy rate we have to design our Child-to-Child activities, not only for the school-going children but also for the children out of school who are a significant percentage of our total children.
For the children out of school we had to emphasise visual materials, non-formal techniques and arrangements and different PRA methods rather than booklets, questionnaires and formal interviews. As a part of this interpretation Phulki has developed a Child-to-Child model and some package materials which are low cost and replicable. The packages contain different issue based materials of hygiene and child rights and some other unavoidable issues. In the packages there are some game materials and different types of interesting materials, which are used not only to disseminate messages but also for recreation of the underprivileged children.
The model and materials already prove its effectiveness. WaterAid’s (DIFID-funded) partner NGOs in Bangladesh have received Training of Teachers on the Child-to-Child Approach from Phulki and are using these materials and models to implement their CTC project. Through all these setups we have built a partnership between the children and the adults in the community and developed a group of permanent activists, who will adhere to their development to ensure the sustainability.
Executive Director, Suraiya Haque
Website: www.phulki.org
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