C OvER sTORY
mals, and were more active in front of visitors.
Parenting behaviours and family environment saw more signifi-
cant progress than babies’ development. CDRF’s Huachi mid-term
survey found that home environments, parenting behaviours and
childcare patterns in the treatment group had improved significantly
after about 10 months. Statistics from Save the Children show that
caregivers were more engaged with their babies and toddlers by tell-
ing stories, singing songs and playing with toys more frequently, and
enjoyed doing so more than those in the control group.
The REAP team reviewed their results six months into the pro-
gramme. They found parents in the intervention group communi-
cated much more frequently by reading, singing and playing with
toys than those in the control group.
As Liu Peng with CDRF has stressed, the purpose of the pro-
gramme is more to improve the parenting environment for children’s
development with lasting positive impacts on their future life and ca-
reer, than to make an immediate big difference to children’s develop-
ment. Wang Chao, director of Save the Children in China, noted to
ChinaReport that international experience has already proved a posi-
tive life-time impact of proper parenting on child development.
Mountainous Routes
All the efforts are difficult, and challenges abound. The attitude of
caregivers still needs to improve. In our interview with several parent-
ing trainers and township supervisors in Huachi, they found it nor-
mally takes two weeks to two months for children to begin to enjoy
toys and games brought once a week by trainers. However, it takes
longer, up to six months in some cases, for caregivers to have a positive
attitude towards the programme. There are various reasons, according
to the CDRF and REAP teams. Caregivers are busy with their farm-
ing and housekeeping. They are upset about being told by others to
do something they find strange at the beginning. Zhang Yongli told
ChinaReport that as many households are scattered and isolated, the
in-home visits can hardly help solve the lack of social activities, which
is also important for children’s early development.
Grandmas, who are often poorly educated and tire more eas-
ily, tend to have to try harder to accept the ideas. However, “Some
grandmas even do better than some mothers,” a parenting trainer in
Huachi told ChinaReport, adding that some mums are glued to their
smartphones during the weekly training sessions.
Liu Peng is concerned about the stability of the trainers’ team. Par-
enting trainers often have to travel a long distance to families scattered
around the mountainous villages of Huachi. Their salaries are low,
and they do not have a stable expectation for their future in two or
three years, at the end of the programme. It is difficult to find women
who hold at least the junior secondary school diploma required by the
programme and who stay home, as people with better education are
more likely to work in cities.
As parenting trainers in Save the Children projects are community-
based family planning officers, the team is basically stable. However,
the mountainous areas in Yunnan are also a problem. Wang said some
parenting trainers had to make fewer home visits. This could affect
the extent of the programme. Their mid-term assessment shows that
the more visits are made, the bigger the improvements observed in
babies’ cognitive development.
REAP is building 50 village parenting centres where caregivers and
babies can play and learn parenting skills together. Their trainers are
also local family planning officers. Its supercentre for children of new
residents who have moved from other places in Shaanxi will start op-
erations soon. All this is designed to solve the problem of the high cost
of in-home visits in mountainous areas and depressed, lonely care-
givers. CDRF also plans to conduct similar activities which facilitate
gatherings of families in their newly-launched project in Xinjiang.Extended Efforts
All the institutions have highlighted that attention cannot be solely
focused on left-behind children. REAP studies found that left-behind
children performed better than those living with their parents in
terms of nutrition, and did better in school when older, except emo-
tionally. Rozelle stressed that left-behind children do not need special
treatment, and all poor rural children need help. Lu Mai with the
CDRF noted that it was not appropriate to label left-behind children
as a group with emotional problems, and thus the key at least for now
was to have a caregiver, no matter who it is, who can look after them
properly.
Researchers have been calling for a national policy to provide early
development for babies and toddlers. Nutrition is likely to be the first
area to see breakthroughs. On June 30, the State Council declared a
national nutrition plan, including goals for breastfeeding, pregnant
women’s nutrition and health indicators for children below five years
old.
The road towards a national intervention on early education for
babies and toddlers looks long and hard. The awareness of the public,
even among urban elites, needs to be improved. REAP suggested that
all parents be required to finish a course on feeding and parenting
before getting the official birth certificate. Wang hopes the public-fac-
ing campaign can contribute to improving public awareness, which
is more important than the success of the pilot projects. A leader of
a children’s service organisation was surprised to hear of the urgency
and importance of early education for poor children under three years
old, he told ChinaReport. It is not easy to persuade Chinese donors to
support projects like this about which they have little understanding
and for where it takes long time to see visible results, Liu Peng said.
For local governments and their agencies, it costs money that local
governments, stricken with debt already, may not have. In addition,
local governments do not have the experience of providing early edu-