Early Childhood Development

In 2006, children ages two to five are learning reading, writing, art, social skills, singing and family relationships in Paghman. The children go to class for two and a half hours, six days a week while their mothers are in the Paghman Literacy Program. For the children in the villages, these classes give an opportunity to learn they otherwise would not have. The classes also help the mothers who are in the Literacy program because their children can go to school while they are in school.

In 2006, PARSA will train our 25 teachers who are working with the children in a psychosocial training component that utilizes the principles of the training with young children. International Red Cross printed a manual outlining a course for teachers in Dari and our psychosocial trainer will be able to train our teachers in this technique as well. We will also be taking advantage of a volunteer "Headstart" consultant who will be working with our staff to develop parenting classes and to find new ways to integrate activities that involve parents into our programming.