Program of Early Child Development in Poor Rural Areas
In 2009 CDRF launched the Program of Early Childhood Development in Poor Rural Areas in Qinghai Province and Yunnan Province, which has had a great progress in 2011.
On March 24, 2011, Mr. Qiang Wei, Secretary of Qinghai Provincial Committee, and Mr. Luo Huining, Governor of Qinghai Province, held a meeting with Mr. Wang Mengkui, Chairman of CDRF’, and Mr. Lu Mai, Secretary General of CDRF Considering Qinghai’s economic development and its geographical distribution of farmland and pasture, both sides reached the consensus that the Program of Early Childhood Development in Poor Rural Areas was a component of China’s Grand Western Development Program which aimed at improving people’s livelihood. It should be scaled up to cover the whole province.
In May, 2011, CDRF cooperated with the World Bank and conducted a large-scale research evaluation in three counties and one municipality of Qinghai. This survey completed with 2,698 questionnaires and 5,213 interviewees. It collected a large amount of first-hand materials about nutrition and development conditions of children aged 0-3, and cognitive, linguistic and memory abilities of children aged 3-6 in western poor rural areas. Based on these materials, CDRF evaluated its program in a systematic way and completed the report Interim Assessment of CDRF’s Pilot of Early Child Development in Qinghai. In November, CDRF organized an international conference with the theme of “Child Leads, Equity Counts”, which convened 60 foreign delegates from 16 countries and international organizations as well as 120 domestic delegates. Madam. Chen Zhili, Vice Chairwoman of NPC, delivered a keynote speech. Mr. Li Wei, President of DRC attended the conference and Mr. Han Jun, Vice President of DRC, gave a speech at the opening ceremony. After the conference, 18 foreign delegates and journalists from China and abroad made a field survey in CDRF’s ECD pilot, Ledu County of Qinghai Province. Since November 17, 2011, Qinghai Province has scaled up CDRF’s pilot and introduced its experience to other 15 counties.
