23 May, 2017 – Bhoothivazhi, SouthIndia
More than hundred people have celebrated the inauguration of our third Making More Health kindergarten (anganwadi) in the rural village of Bhoothivazhi in Kerala.
Bhoothivazhi is a location where more than 1200 tribal and rural people live together; 34 of them are children at the age between 3 and 5 years who now can enjoy a safe, healthy and nice kindergarten.
“I’m very happy”, says Anil, the anganwadi teacher,”now our educational activities and also health awareness programs with the young adoloscent boys and girls and pregnant women are much easier to manage. We have a small storage, a children toilet, a smokeless kitchen place and space for growing some vegetables. With the additional rain water system on the roof we will have also enough water.”
The new anganwadi is a really nice building with a smokeless kitchen, a children toilet, a small storage room, a special rain harvesting system and a cosy children room. It serves as kindergarten, but also as a center of health protection and awareness: anganwadi teachers take care of young pregnant mothers, organize immunization for the children and explain to many village people how a healthier life can be conducted.
At the walls there are nice, very colorful paintings, small smart children stories, a mixture of traditional Indian and other cultures, and basic letters and numbers. Even outside there is a lot of space that allows to play and to set up a first real kitchen garden – having a lot of playground around an anganwadi is rather unusual in this region.
Everyone has been very excited and busy during the past days: The workers were finalizing the paintings, adjusting the outdoor area and water installation, and putting safety fences so that the children could not fall while running and playing outside… we – that’s the MMH initiative and our local NGO partner (the Karl Kuebel Institute for development education, kkkid.org) – have visited several times while providing the inauguration stones and some plants (palms, flowers, lemon and curry leave trees), an inauguration invitation paper has been distributed in the village by the panchayat…
Then, finally, the Inauguration Day is there. The mothers and the anganwadi teacher have decorated the building with balloons, colorful paper stripes, flowers, candles and a lot of chairs as well as the village function tent so that also the elderly and children can easily attend. The local panchayat members and the anganwadi Vice President of the region is there, the anganwadi workers and many mothers, grand mothers, the children, many village people watch even from outside the anganwadi … It’s a very joyful ceremony, for everyone.
Have a look at the video (ca. 1:40 min)! Get an idea about the preparations and the inauguration day itself!
Many thanks to all who contributed to make this anganwadi happen – a place for children education & care and for more health!
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