Child-to-Child Strategy

Practical Hints to Practise Child-to-child  Activity 

Given below are guidelines to conduct Child-to-child activities. Read them carefully. 

• Choose a place that is not too noisy or distracting. 
• Start small, if possible with  no more than 20 children. 
• Allow enough time, so you do nor nave to rush. 
• Have all material i.e.  activity sheets, activities, etc. ready ahead of time. Try to have enough so that all children can participate actively, instead of just watching. 
• Use words familiar to the children. Avoid big scientific terms. 
• Do not try to do too much at once. Prepare one activity sheet which contains enough ideas, to help you plan several meetings with the children. 
• Before organising activities in a school, speak with the head master or teacher. Try to get their interest, understanding and cooperation. 
• Also discuss the activities with parents, so-they will be more accepting of the children's new ideas. Perhaps some parents will want to help or give support. 

Possibilities to Practise Child-to-child Activity 

Suggested below are situations where Child-to-child activities can be undertaken: 

• Older children can lead activities with young children in,the school. (Supervision of pmonal hygiene). 
• School children can lead activities with preschool  and non-school children. 
• Children can report back to the  group about the ways in which they  have used their new knowledge at home and  with younger children. 
• Children's surveys can be repeated to check for improvements. 
• Children can put on public skits. puppet  shows. or demonstrations. 
• Children from one school or village can introduce Child-to-child to children in another nearby  school or village. 
• Teachers can discuss how they can apply Child-to-child principles to the rest of their  teaching so as to make schooling relate more to children's  lives. 

Child-to-child strategy is centred around the principle of guiding the older children  for caring the  younger children better. Caring younger ones is done mostly by the older children, which is our traditional culture. Thus Child-to-child activities are related to our culture and  hence  they are very well accepted by the parents in  the community. Sample activity is illustrated for conducting the Child-to-child activity easily.

Topic : Helping the children to identify the nutrition status of children in a community. 

We can usually recognise children who are severely malnourished  without taking measurements. The following two pictures can be shown to group of active children 

who take lead/initiative.

Discussion can be lead with them by putting the following questions? 

• Do you find any difference between the two pictures? 
• What are the differences between the mo? 
• Do the children in pictures look like a normal child? 
• If  not, how does each one differ from normal? 

Besides children who are severely malnourished like the above two, there are usually many others who are less severely malnourished in the community. Now show the following picture 111 and lead the discussion with the children. 

Discussion: This more common form of malnutrition, is not always obvious. The child simply does not grow or gain weight as fast as well-nourished child. 

Can you guess how he looks like? They may come out with answer or  not? You can start briefing.......... 

Although he may appear rather small and thin, he, usually, does not look sick (border line case). However, because he is poorly nourished, he may lack strength (resistance) to fight against infections. So he tends to get sick more frequently than a well-nourished child. 

Continue discussion by putting the following questions: 

• Have you seen such children suffering from infections? 
• If yes, what are some of the infections? 

It is important to spot out children line cases. Once you spot out, make sure they get the special care and food they need before they become seriously ill. Suggest to the parents to take the child to nearby anganwadi centre or primary health centre. Since it is not always obvious which children are growing well and which are not. One has to be careful with such children. 

Who Can Introduce This Activity?

Yourself, teacher, extension worker, any body who is interested in Child-to-child activity can conduct this activity. 

Practicing the Child-to-child Activity 

1. Look for actual presentation or video cassette presentation of the mode of operation of Child-to-child activity (Child-to-child programme in the Municipal Corporation school of Delhi-A  video prepared by NCERT;  Department of pre-school and elementary education can be seen). 
2. Observe the activity and by to learn the skill in conducting the same. 
3. Make an effort to organise such an activity related to nutrition or health in your community on your own involving children in a school or anywhere.