Early Childhood Care and Development Programme

The Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Programme was piloted in 2010 in collaboration with the UNDP to address the early childcare needs of parents in remote rural communities. Pre-school-aged children are an especially vulnerable group: they are not eligible to be enrolled in school yet. They are in a formative period in life that will prove decisive for their future physical and mental health. Their parents, who labour long hours in the fields, are often compelled to leave these children unsupervised at home – an arrangement that is not conducive to optimum social and intellectual development and exposes them to real dangers. Though reports of such practices poured in from all parts of Bhutan, the sight of a five-year-old boy tied to the window sill prompted Tarayana to jump-start the ECCD Programme. 

The Foundation initially started this programme as the Buzip Programme  Tarayana started daycare centers in six villages across two districts of Bhutan (Zhemgang and Samtse). The programme firstly constructed simple, single-room structures in each village to provide a safe space for children’s lessons and activities. Next, six young women were selected as caregivers and sent for a month-long training program in Thimphu. These women had been compelled to drop out of high-school due to other family responsibilities and constraints primarily financial, so this opportunity was seized upon as an invaluable chance for them to access further education and gainful employment. The training they underwent emphasized developmentally appropriate curriculums, patience, positivity, flexibility, and parents’ participation in the learning process. These trained caregivers were fully engaged, from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm daily, in activities that foster children’s language skills, creative thinking, social responsibility, and physical fitness. Tarayana has also provided the day care centres with teaching aides and materials, floor mats, and other necessities to ensure a stimulating and productive environment for the children. 

Over the years, the foundation has established 40 Early Childhood Care and Development Centres (ECCD) in nine districts, creating a foundation for children’s education and well-being and enabling mothers to participate in productive activities. As the number of facilitators for these centres grew, the Foundation was challenged with financial resources to keep them on the payroll as regular staff. Therefore, the government was approached to seek support for the salaries and benefits of the facilitators. As the government could not take a CSO’s staff on the payroll, it was suggested that the ECCD Centre’s be handed over to the respective districts which would enable the government to take the facilitators on the government contract system.

These centers have been handed over to the respective  districts in 2016.