carried out by a local NGO called Sithuwama, with UNICEF support. Sithuwama, which means ‘raising a child with enjoyment’, promotes early childhood care, including healthy childcare practices and cognitive stimulation. Its services are provided through home-visiting programs for infants up to three-year-olds and for pre-schoolers from age three to five.
Through Sri Lanka’s home-based service, Priyanthi learns that good nutrition, home hygiene and sanitation practices and cognitive stimulation are all necessary ingredients for her children to grow and develop. Now, she is investing the focused time, care and attention that are vital for improving her children’s lives. She collects extra firewood to boil water for her children to drink. She finds legumes that add to the nutritional value of their meals. She makes certain that they use the latrine and wash their hands afterwards. She asks her children their thoughts about the birds chattering overhead during their baths in the stream. She takes them to village health days.
Priyanthi, her husband and children live in a small, four-room, cement house without electricity or running water. They sleep together on a dirt floor on woven straw mats. The family survives on a little over 2,000 rupees (about $27) a month that Priyanthi’s husband earns on a tea plantation.
Sithuwama’s volunteer home visitors helped Priyanthi figure out how to promote her children’s psychosocial and cognitive development without spending much money. The NGO’s volunteers teach her the importance of play for her children’s physical and mental well being. She and her husband constructed a playhouse for the children. The airy structure is made from twigs and branches tied together with pieces of cloth and covered with a tarp. Little wooden shelves are filled with colorful boxes, gourds, coconut shells, ceramic bowls, metal cans and flowers they have picked. Through play, Madushika and Madusha are learning about colors, shapes, sizes, labeling and sorting. They are also learning to dream and imagine.
Priyanthi meets weekly with a program volunteer and once a month with a group of other parents in support sessions. Learning from each other, the parents compare notes about their babies’ height, weight and other milestones.
