Fostering Young Learners Through Child-to-Child Clubs.
PEPY's Child-to-Child Clubs are a powerful, creative process for children to learn how to work together for change in their communities.
About You
About You
First Name
Thea
Last Name
Anderson
Twitter URL
http://twitter.com/#!/pepycambodia
Facebook URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
PEPY
Organization Website
Organization Country
Cambodia, SI, Siem Reap
Country where this project is creating social impact
Cambodia, SI, Siem Reap
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
Resource Officer.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Growth (your pilot is up and running, and starting to expand)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
The destructive regime of the Khmer Rouge 30 years ago is still affecting Cambodia’s education system today. There is a lack of trained teachers and educators, especially in rural communities, and little understanding of the value of education. Currently 50% of rural Cambodian children drop out of school by 3rd grade. This only perpetuates the cycle of poverty. There is also a need to transition the current education system from one that relies on wrote learning, to a dynamic more stimulating environment that fosters analytical and critical thinking skills, leadership, emotional understanding, teamwork, and creativity.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
Fostering leadership, social responsibility and critical thinking through non-formal education ensures not only that children who do not attend school learn key life skills but also gives an opportunity to promote the value of education and encourage at-risk children to stay in school. PEPY’s Child-to-Child Clubs offer children aged 5-14 an environment in which they can identify common difficulties in their lives and communities and strive to address them by working with other members of their Child Club. It is an action-based learning approach that encourages children to focus on key issues around health, environmental, and human rights subjects.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
In Child-to-Child Clubs, the children themselves identify the topics to be discussed and addressed. For instance, in the last quarter of 2011, children and facilitators focused on the importance of water hygiene and clean clothes to improve health. As the children gathered information and tried out various solutions, there was a steady improvement in hygiene practices among participants over the quarter as they practiced what they learned. In addition, the students have shown initiative in speaking with community members and encouraging them to adopt hygienic practices for a healthy lifestyle. The Child-to-Child Clubs are successfully impacting the children’s health, awareness, capacity to develop social and personal skills, as well as spreading positive changes in the wider community. The children also learn a methodology that they can then apply to solve problems independently. The 6 steps involved in Child clubs are:
1. Discuss community issues within an open meeting setting.
2. Identify the reasons behind the problem discussed.
3. Share ideas of how to make a positive change based on personal circumstances and experiences.
4. Work together to choose the best and simplest way to address the problem, analysing the pros and cons of the proposed solution.
5. Develop a plan to communicate the issues and solutions to the community through plays, campaigns etc.
6. Evaluate the process to ensure the problem has been resolved and identify steps to mitigate the problem in the future.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
We seek to scale our impact through sharing lessons learned, partnering with organizations, conducting trainings and pooling resources. In 2011, we welcomed the opportunity to work with Child Rights, an NGO in Phnom Penh, and Oxfam Australia to share our experiences in implementing the Child-to-Child concept. Both organizations aim to use the methodology in their programs. In Cambodia many development organizations donate books and resources directly to schools or children. In many cases, there's no training to go with these and they frequently lay idle. In other cases, direct giving can create dependencies. It can be a challenge breaking the expectation of “handouts”. We believe in investing in people rather than things to build capacity for young people who can then develop themselves.
Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
PEPY's Child-to-Child Clubs are a powerful, creative process for children to learn how to work together for change in their communities.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
The entirely child-driven approach of the clubs empower youth to become real world problem solvers and advocates for positive change.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
261 children attend Child-to-Child Clubs in 14 villages of Siem Reap Province. Since its inception in 2008, Child-to-Child clubs have been well received by villages we work in and have helped to improve overall health and hygiene habits. Dozens of families are now with water filters, and 10 backyard toilets are a result of the Child clubs so far.Child-to-Child Clubs sparked enthusiasm in young leaders so much so that a new club (Volunteer Community Development) was created by former Child Club members and is completely run by them. 54 young educators (grades 7-12) collectively teach more than 700 kids, 5 nights per week, in more than 20 different locations in the district. The club offers English lessons for children, and when comparing English scores between Chanleas Dai primary school and Prasaat Knaar primary school (outside of VCD's teaching area), the Chanleas Dai students achieved higher scores. These outside school clubs have positively affected student's performance in schools.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
Child Clubs will contribute to PEPY’s goal of promoting education through the child club members, who will have the capacity to create awareness on the importance of quality education, based on their own experiences.
We aim to develop the skills of young Club members to the point where (like with VCD) they feel empowered to create their own groups. Further, PEPY aims to encourage more youth formed groups in regions where they currently don't exist. In this way a greater number of children will have the opportunity to learn from young educators, and accordingly we should see an improvement in children's performance at more schools in the district.
We seek to develop strong partnerships with other like-minded organizations who can implement the Child-to-Child methodology in their work.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Identify students at risk of dropping out of schools and clubs. Work with their families and them to encourage attendance.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Conduct home visits and work closely with parents
Task 2
Promote homework clubs and other PEPY educational programs within Child Clubs to strengthen value of education
Task 3
Conduct an impact assessment of the clubs to date and analyse what's working and what's not.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Have a program component designed which assigns one trained young leader per club to facilitate the younger children.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Conduct a project survey within the clubs to gather interest in leadership roles.
Task 2
Design a framework and criteria for how the facilitation training could operate.
Task 3
Select the young people with a view to implementing leadership roles within the next year of the club.
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
After conducting Participatory Rural Appraisals on PEPY’s main target areas in 2007, it was agreed that the education programs that we’d been engaged in for the past two years were not doing enough to build capacity in young people. The country director decided to try implementing a methodology developed by the Child-to-Child Trust in the UK. The Child-to-Child concept appealed to PEPY because we wanted to focus more on 1) directly impacting young people 2) training local leaders for our own organization and 3) better understanding the community. These are all core activities of the Child-to-Child model. As time went on, the Child-to-Child concept received more and more support in the local communities. With continual trainings and improvements it has grown into what is today a more participatory approach for the children.
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
PEPY has previously partnered with Resource Development International Cambodia (RDIC) and built several rainwater harvesting units for schools and communities through this partnership. As some of the topics covered in Child-to-Child clubs focus on water sanitation, RDIC’s help has allowed the participants of Child-to-Child clubs to benefit from solutions that include RDIC’s water filters. PEPY also partners with Room to Read and BETTS, both of whom helped PEPY develop children’s literature and learning techniques in the classroom library.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
PEPY currently has 37 Cambodian staff, 2 international staff and 5 international volunteers. PEPY programs are managed and facilitated entirely by Cambodian team members, with many of the Child-to-Child educators coming from, or near, the communities that PEPY works directly with. In addition, the local communities and Child Club participants assist with the impact of this project through their participation and application of skills and lessons learned.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
Technical skills and information sharing between organizations would help to create learning opportunities. In kind donations for computer and IT equipment are helpful as they will support PEPY's operations.
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 | 59 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 60 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 60 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 60 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 60 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
| 60 weeks ago Thea Anderson updated this Competition Entry. |
