The high-quality development of children is the foundation for the sustainable development of the country and society. On May 15, the "Sunshine Beginnings: 100,000 Rural Infants and Young Children Guidance Action Plan" was launched in Beijing, aiming to promote the healthy growth and all-round development of rural children and realize the high-quality development of the population to support Chinese modernization.
Sunshine Start: 100,000 Rural Infants and Young Children Guidance Action Plan was launched in Beijing
Initiated by the China Development Research Foundation, the project will recruit and train local village-level infant care counselors to provide 100,000 rural caregivers aged 0-3 with one-hour home-based parenting guidance services once a week, promote the concepts, technologies and methods of scientific infant and toddler parenting, enhance caregivers' parenting knowledge and skills, and improve the level of family education and early childhood development in rural areas.
Fang Jin, vice chairman and secretary general of the China Development Research Foundation, said that there are shortcomings in the development of human resources in the early childhood stage of the mainland, one is less investment in early education for children aged 0-3, and the other is that there is a large difference in the development level of urban and rural children. To achieve high-quality population development, we must increase investment and make up for the shortcomings in the development of rural children. The "Sunshine Start Plan" plans to cover 25,000 children by July this year and 50,000 children by the end of the year, and eventually achieve full coverage of 100,000 rural children by mobilizing support from all walks of life. Specific targets include: the coverage rate of infant and toddler care risk screening in the project area will reach more than 80%, the coverage rate of "one-to-one" services will reach more than 80%, and the development level of infants and young children will reach or approach the level of urban children.
Fang Jin, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of China Development Research Foundation
During the ceremony, Amway Charity Foundation donated 10.5 million RMB to support the "Sunshine Start Program", which is expected to provide home-based parenting guidance services for 4,250 rural infants and toddlers within three years. Peng Xiang, chairman of the Amway Foundation, said that solving the problem of raising children in rural areas is the "best investment project", which can give them a fair "starting point in life" and a "sunny starting point" for urban and rural residents to move towards common prosperity.
Bridging the Early Childhood Development Gap is about rural revitalization and common prosperity
The wisdom of the youth is the wisdom of the country, and the strength of the youth is the strength of the country. In the modern concept of children's education, 0-3 years old is the critical period for the rapid growth of infant brain cells and the maturity of nerve fiber myelin sheath.
In the first few years of life, the brain is able to make more than 1 million neuronal connections per second, a rate that cannot be reproduced at a later stage of life. The quality of neuronal connections is influenced not only by genes, but also by acquired life experiences, including access to good nutrition, protection, and stimuli for conversation, play, and responsive care.
There are currently 50 million infants and young children in China, most of whom live in rural areas, and if they are in an unfavorable family environment such as poverty, left-behind, single parents, and caregivers with a weak sense of early education, some children may miss out forever on the most important period of brain development between the ages of 0 and 3. According to a survey conducted by the China Development Research Foundation, the development level of children in the fields of cognition, motor and social ability in underdeveloped rural areas of mainland China is significantly lower than that in urban areas, and the screening results in some areas show that the proportion of children without stunting is even less than half; The families of stunted children basically do not have a scientific parenting model.
The gap in early childhood development will affect their ability to receive education and their overall ability in the future, so that it will be difficult for them to adapt to the needs of technological and social development after entering the labour market. It can be seen that the early development of rural children is related to rural revitalization and common prosperity, and to the future of the country and the nation.
In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Agenda, which for the first time included early childhood development as a key goal. The earlier the investment in early childhood development, the lower the cost and the higher the return.
Studies have proved that investing in the early development of rural children and actively intervening in nutrition, health, and education during the window period of 0-3 years old can change the lagging development of rural children in terms of intelligence, personality, psychology, and emotion, so that their language, learning, sports, and social skills can be fully stimulated, and ensure that children in rural areas get equal opportunities for development. At the same time, it will promote the realization of the goal of social equity and common prosperity.
Fang Jin said that he hopes that through the "Sunshine Start Plan", the consensus of all sectors of society on the importance of early childhood development in rural areas will be gathered, relevant public policies will be promoted, and the quality of the people and population will be comprehensively improved.
The Amway Foundation helps rural children with precision
In line with the "Sunshine Start Program", in 2021, Amway Charity Foundation launched the "Healthy Children's Paradise - Children's Comprehensive Health Support Program" for the early development of children aged 0-6 in rural areas: the project starts from the three dimensions of "physical and mental intelligence", builds a health education corner for rural kindergartens, and establishes a parent-child paradise for rural families, with 17 sets of building blocks, toys, picture books, story machines and sports equipment to form an exclusive space for children, 124 parent-child interactive games and 31 nutrition courses to provide parenting intellectual supportIt ensures that children receive balanced nutrition during the critical period of growth, and promotes the development of children's emotional and social abilities, stimulates the potential of children's brain and nervous system, and promotes the growth of children's intelligence and comprehensive ability through high-quality companionship and scientific parenting methods by preschool educators and caregivers.
Amway Foundation "Healthy Children's Paradise - Children's Comprehensive Health Support Program"
Up to now, the family version of the project has been implemented in 25 counties in 9 provinces, including Qinghai, Xinjiang, Guizhou, Gansu and Jiangxi, benefiting 18,000 families. The kindergarten version covers 971 kindergartens in 52 counties (districts) in 17 provinces, benefiting more than 150,000 children.
Peng Xiang introduced that since its establishment 13 years ago, the Amway Charity Foundation has been based in rural areas, and has successively carried out children's public welfare projects that have won the China Charity Award, such as the "Spring Sprout Nutrition Program" and the "Nutrition Improvement Program for Preschool Children for 5", to solve the nutritional problems of rural schoolchildren, covering 319 counties in 31 provinces and helping more than 3.42 million rural children; It also forms a synergy with parents, schools/kindergartens, volunteers, communities and social welfare organizations to create a comprehensive social network and long-term social mechanism to support the healthy growth of children.