Scaling it up to €7,8 billion!

By Shanti Mahabier-KalicharanMay 17, 2013

I am So proud of our partner UNICEF and in this case especially their team in China. They managed to scale up projects focused on Early Childhood Development & Education (ECD/ECE) funded for €10 million, to an investment of €7,8 billion by the government, in Early Childhood Development & Education.

I would like to give you a quick snapshot on our amazing experiences in China. Together IKEA Spain I was lucky to see how our efforts to make the Soft Toys for Education campaign, that runs in IKEA stores from November and December, contribute to amazing projects like these.

The first kinder garden we visited was with children from 3-6 years of age. The children were all happy, dancing and also exercising. Some of them really concentrated, while others got a bit distracted by us. It was just so good to see these young ones dancing, singing and receiving the attention and care, they so deserve.

Happy dancing and singing - warms my heart

After they finished their exercises they went into their classrooms and started to create little pieces of art. Most of the artwork the children made, came from materials they had used for themselves and hereby recycled them. They used the bottom of plastic bottles to dip in paint and create flowers, they coloured stones and created beautiful paintings on them.

Creativity is highly stimulated by the teachers

While they were crafting I got the chance to speak to a teacher. She was really happy to get the chance to teach these children and mainly because the children are always happy, they cannot stop laughing and always have smile on their face when they are in the garden. That is also what we experienced, there were some kids, who really had the most fun in the world when we were in their class, they just couldn’t stop giggling, it was so contagious. After they were done with their art they ran to us and gave it to us, not knowing we would carry them and their artwork in our hearts forever. It was wonderful to see how much fun they had.

Giving us their beautiful artworks

After we visited the Tibetan kinder garden, we went to visit a kinder garden which facilitated overnight stays during week days for the kids. Parents in China really believe in the pre-school training and are committed to send their children to kinder gardens. The children usually stay there because the parents live too far away to bring their children every day. So they are willing to miss their children during the week in order to fulfil their dream; that the children will be able, one day to finish college. Even though it was so nice to see the children were given the opportunity to stay overnight there, it was still clear that they need more facilities, like indoor toilets.

From little facilities to even less; we went to an area where they don’t have a kinder garden but just a room. The local teachers organize activities/workshops once every couple of months, depending on whether the parents are at home or whether they go into the mountains with their kids to search for herbs. The teachers have their normal class in primary school but also do their best to provide extra services to the younger children and their parents.

We walked 20 minutes in the mountains and experienced what “hard to reach areas” really mean. The home we visited was 20 minutes away, but the road was full of sand and stones and we could easily imagine how slippery and dangerous it would be after rainy or snowy weather.

Experiencing the hospitality of a Tibetan family in the mountains

After a debriefing in Songpan County we went back to Beijing. Here we got another debriefing from UNICEF China, where Dale, Chief of Communications showed us, how with the funding through the Soft Toys Campaign, UNICEF China was able to gain evidence of the positive impact the ECD projects have. By gathering evidence, they made their case to the government and managed to convince the government to invest 7,8 billion in the pre-school education for our most important people in the world: our children.

This is the situation in Malawi – from Clara Chindime, UNICEF

By Juli RieglerMay 16, 2013

Our next group of IKEA co-workers is on their way to visit educational projects funded by the Soft Toys for Education campaign in Malawi.

But before you can read all about their experiences during next week, get an impression of the situation from UNICEF co-worker Clara Chindime working at the Malawi office.

Clara Chindime, Girls Education Officer, UNICEF Malawi office

I am Clara Chindime and I work as a Girls Education Officer in the UNICEF Malawi office.

My passion for girls education comes from the encouragement that my father gave me. At the time I was in college many people had the belief that if one gets too educated, she’ll not get married but my dad was of a different opinion. With this, I got the drive to promote education for the girl child. I like mentoring girls, encouraging them, letting them know that they have the same capabilities as boys!

Many girls in Malawi drop out of school due to early marriage and early pregnancies and some of the contributing factors are cultural and traditional beliefs that advocate for early marriages.

My happiest moments in my work are when I see or hear that the girls I’ve mentored have been selected to secondary school. Makes me feel like a proud mother.

Currently, I am glad I am with UNICEF at this time when we are supporting the Ministry of Education in coming up with a strategy for girls education. This will entail better programming for girls education and we should be able to see improved indicators.

I thank our partners such as the IKEA Foundation for supporting UNICEF Malawi’s girls education programmes. Their support is a good and worthwhile investment.

Clara with some of "her" children

Most things remains to be done….

By Rasika CarlssonMay 16, 2013

For the third and last day we went to Save the Childrens office. There we found out that they had invited a professor, Dainius Puras as a guest speaker. Dainius works in the centre of Child Psychiatry and social Pediatrics at Vilnius University. He explained the context around the belief in Lithuania, that care institutions for children who that lack to have a good social environment, is the best option rather than finding a foster family.

After listening and learning more about Lithuanian history it is easy to understand that a change away from the system of institutional care will not happen over a night.

Children writing their future wish to parliamentarians

Artwork made of leather belts

After lunch we had the great chance to witness a special event outside the parliament. On the big square outside the parliament a big group had gathered. There was media journalist, national TV, lots of kids, Save the Children and then we. The goal was to raise awareness and that there is other options than to educate a child then with a belt. The children from the different day care centres contributed with 141 hands in paper, one for each parliamentarian. And on the hands the children wrote what they wished for in the future.

Next week there will be a voting regarding legalization against child abuse. Let´s hope that the power of the children´s many hands can make a difference.

The hands are being handed over to a member of the parliament, with Rasa Dicpetriene from Save the Children Lithuania, and Ulla Armyr Save the Children Sweden.

The hands are being handed over to a member of the parliament, with Rasa Dicpetriene, Save the Children Lithuania, and Ulla Armyr Save the Children Sweden.

We are so thankful for being able to join this trip and we have learned so much. In the same time with the new knowledge, we can also tell that Lithuania as many other countries have a long way still to go. But every small step contributes to the big change that we so hope for.

Us together with some of the children outside parliament.

Over and out…

Rasika & Gisele

Here we go! The clock is ticking and it is less than 1 week before setting off for the journey.

By Stázi JakubcováMay 16, 2013

Africa’s calling.

Why go?

Being an IWitness of the project, IKEA Soft Toys for Education campaign, which is bringing money to the children, gives me an opportunity to see how we, along with UNICEF and Save the Children are supporting a system that helps many children and gives them better start. It’s absolutely great!

Knowledge of destination?

Malawi? What’s Malawi? To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know much about Malawi so I went to the mighty Wikipedia to give me a little bit of insight. I have decided to make the conscious decision to keep myself a little in the dark about what to expect and what is there. In this way, I will not expect anything and will only be surprised. It is much more fun to learn what’s „out there“ first hand and I feel that the experience does not always have to be positive or predictable, as long as it is strong!

My feelings?

I’m experiencing a mixture of excitement, itchy feet, anxiety (as you do when, before even packing your suitcase, you need vaccinations for scary sounding troubles) and loads of questions. How do they live? What do they like to do? What are their dreams? What can we learn from them? What can I share with them? Do they laugh at the same jokes? Will we be able to understand each other? What would they change, had they be given the opportunity? How is the life with different history, culture, fashion, economy, weather…. you name it, I’m thinking about it!

So bye for now and if you want to know more, watch this space!

How to survive the practicalities…

By Petra StejskalováMay 15, 2013

Today, it has been more than a month since I was told I will travel to Malawi, Africa. I can explicitly remember those few seconds of childish happiness, which were then quickly replaced by giant worries. I thought, “What am I doing? Can I do this?”

First and foremost, I am not a great traveller and I spend all of my holidays travelling across Europe in a car. My longest flight was a business trip from Prague to Budapest or to Milan. At that time, I stepped out the plane absolutely exhausted and said to myself that that the next time I fly I will need to have a drink before the journey .

Another big issue for me was getting vaccinated. The last time this happened was when I was 3 years old. I was worried but I thought about what that 3 year old Petra would have told me and imagined it would have been something like, “Don’t worry, you’re going to see Africa in person!” So I put my fears aside and started to look forward.

It was only a bit later, when I talked to Adela, another IWitness traveller, when I realized that everyone has the same fears and it is appears to be a normal and essential part of the trip. So we did all we could do, which was make some jokes, imagine what will happen and think of how we will enjoy our time there. I also started to discover lots of photos and information about Malawi through Google. Also, it was only very recently that I found out my passport was not valid any more but I was able to manage it just in time!

When I obtained my first round of vaccine injections for hepatitis and typhus I was so afraid that I thought that I would collapse directly at the doctor’s office because I absolutely hate injections! But, everything went quiet well. The doctor was a really friendly lady who recommended and gave me an appropriate vaccination plan. It hurt a bit in my shoulders, where the drug was injected, but otherwise I felt just a little bit tired. Two weeks later I got a vaccination for yellow fever and meningitis. Hopefully this prevention will be enough to put my mind at ease and enjoy my stay at Africa!

Preparations for Malawi

By Adéla JoskováMay 15, 2013

Just one week to go until the biggest adventure in my travelling life- Malawi, Africa, and it seems so far away. My fear is going hand-in-hand with the excitement from doing something new and totally different.

Two weeks ago I got my last vaccination – this is the other thing I was very afraid of but it all went well and I’m ready to explore the secrets of the unknown. There are still many things to buy and take care of like anti-malarias repellents and such, but most importantly I was able to obtain my new passport with time to spare. Additionally, my co-travellers and I were able to get a visa without any problems.

Step by step we were given information, such as where and when we are going, where we are staying, etc. Petra Stejskalova, another IWitness participant, and I were browsing for some pictures of the place where we will be in a few days time. All around me people are saying, “You must take as many pictures as possible!”

A group of 5 people are going to meet at the airport in Prague. This will be the first task for us. I have never been to such a big airport and will be quite nervous about the long flight but I’m looking forward to arriving in Malawi and meeting our colleagues from IKEA Canada who will be joining us for this journey .

What a day!

By Madelene KahnbergMay 15, 2013

So today we have witnessed a lot of things, changing our mind and perception of what is important, I will do my best to guide you through this day!
It started at the hotel reception with a group picture of us all in our nice IKEA Foundation shirts!

Getting ready for the day - meeting at the hotel reception

Then we headed of to the Ministry of Social Security and Labour, meeting Simona Bronusiene, working with Child Right Protection. Simona told us about the work they were doing for the children, all from improving the system of family support, family consulting, social workers and so on.

Some figures that she presented to us showed that in 2012 there were 10 389 social risk families, that means families with parents that are either lacking parental skills or they have some kind of abuse, alcoholic or drug related. In those families there are 21 303 children, most of them over 10 years and new inserted families had mostly children under 3 years of age. These children can go to day care centres after school, I will tell you about this later on.

Here we are together with Simona Bronusiene learning about the situation for the children in Lithuania.

At the Ministry for Social Security and Labour

After this meeting it was time to go to Ukmurge which is a 60 km trip away from Vilnius. Ukmurge is a city with about 20 000 inhabitants. We got the chance to visit a child care institution of the Ukmerge municipality.

In this institution 80 children are living today, in what they called families. Each family has their own living space that is meant to look like a “normal” home. This means that it has a living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms. Here you can see how it looks:

Child care institution of the Ukmerge municipality

Child care institution - the bedrooms

In one “Family” can be children in different ages but they are still in the same age group and some of them are siblings.

The most striking thing for me was the fact that the institution is not what I first thought it would look like. In my mind a institution is a place that has very poor standards, smells bad and the children look damaged. This institution was in good shape, mostly renovated recently and didn’t smell bad at all. Some of the children wanted to talk to us, despite all of what they had or going through, they had a smile on their faces when they saw us.

With that being said, it was in my point of view way too clean to see that actually children are living there and we also have been told that when a child comes to an institution that is the last resort. Then nothing else had been working. The other options being day care centres, foster families or adoption. With this in mind it was tough to meet these wonderful children from ages 0 to 18.

Hopefully these children can be together with their families again or adopted, meanwhile I really hope that they are somewhat okay and if they are staying in the intuition until their 18th birthday, I hope that they find the power to brake this and grow up to be a good and caring adult.

All of the “Families” have their own name and one “Family” is called the Kite Family and the hallway was decorated with kites, it was a happy sight.

The Kite Family rooms

The Kite Family rooms II

Before we were leaving the institution we saw the library, it was a small room packed with books! When we came it was two young girls reading to each other and when they saw us they were running out laughing typical girls laugh, it was that kind of laughter that makes you warm in the heart and I am sure that they were talking girl talk!

In this library was a librarian working, the cutest old lady, the oldest one in the building she said. She told us that about 15 to 20 children there reading there every day, but not on a sunny day, and today was a sunny day.

Laimlite Malcanova, Bibliotekininke - the librarian

Before we left we met an old and dear friend, FAMNIG heart pillow

Meeting an old and dear friend, FAMNIG the IKEA heart pillow

Before we headed home we went to visit a day care centre where children of social risk families come after school to do homework and play.

These centre’s are a big and important part of these children’s life because it is a safe place for them. Here they can be a child for a while. Social workers are around that can talk to the children.

Each Tuesday the centre gets a delivery from the grocery stores and they get food with short expire dates. This they can hand out to the children so they can take some food home with them.

I am very thankful to have been to this places and that we have been welcomed by many different people that have showed us this, so thank you!

Our group outside the day care centre

See you soon!

Madde

Our First Day With Save The Children Lithuania!

By Kate BrownMay 13, 2013

Our first day in Lithuania was one of questions, introductions and learnings. At breakfast we met some new co-workers and by lunch time we were old friends.

First day in Lithuania

We spent most of our afternoon in Save The Children’s Office. We quickly learned they had some very specific objectives that they planned to meet by 2015. The most important being the reduction of violence against children, reduction of social neglect, children’s right governances and the continuing strengthening of their own national office.

Tomorrow we will see first-hand how the IKEA Foundation with their funding will be able to help with these objectives. Our drive will begin early to the outskirts of Vilnius, but know that all the co-workers are ready to Iwitness things first hand.

We will keep you posted!

Lynn and Katie

The end and the beginning

By Inmaculada SeguraMay 13, 2013

Once in Beijing, the following morning we had the opportunity to meet Dale Rustein, Communication and Institutional Relations manager for UNICEF in China. Very kindly he answered all our questions and presented what UNICEF is doing now and what the plans are to continue with this project in the futuret.

After the economical changes during the 80s in China, childhood education which was supported in the whole country dropped down quickly. In 2006, when UNICEF China started the ECD (early childhood development) project, lots of things have changed to the better.

In 2006 only 29% of the children in this age received education. Now 66% have the possibility in Songpan county. For those children who due to the distances have difficulties to go to school, they have built some community centres where they organise activities to support them. There children and parents learn how to play together and get to know other families.

The future - by Carolina Garcia

But there is still a long way to go. The equipments in many cases is not suitable, they need to continue working in some sanitation areas, tap water and electricity. Also they find it difficult to find enough teachers who are trained and have the capacity to speak the different dialects. The hard living conditions in this areas makes it more difficult, creating a high turnover in teaching staff.

The ambition is to have one school in every village and be able to train teachers who can later train the trainers for new teachers starting.

Nowadays UNICEF’s mission in China is more important than ever. Their programs reach every province with special attention to women and children in the most remote areas.

UNICEF is one of the few international organisations with influence in governments regarding children development. That’s why they have such an important role to support China with the most difficult areas: gender equity, HIV and migration for example.

Even if the Chinese economy is growing, the majority of the population is living in remote rural areas facing very difficult conditions. These are the areas where problems with capacity, infrastructures, the distances and the lack of resources make it very difficult to reach social development.

Proud families - China - by Caronlina Garcia

Later Dale told us about all these things and answered all our many questions. The end of our journey to China arrived. It was the end of the trip but the beginning of our real mission: to be your eyes and tell you all what we have lived and seen.

The sustainability ambassadors from IKEA Spain, took off on the 22nd of April destination Songpan County (Sichuan, China). We carried our bags full of “imaginary images” and expectations that were totally exceeded when we opened our eyes in Songpan.

The common wish of all the team was to see, discover and learn about everything that IKEA Foundation together with UNICEF is doing in terms of childhood education. We didn’t want to miss any moment: the games with the children, the words of the parents, all the images and habits of this millennia culture.

For sure, this experience has taught us that every smile of those children is worth the effort to support the Soft Toys for Education campaign as much as possible.

Millenian culture - by Perdo Gimenez

We would like to dedicate our last words to our friends in China because they have taught us so many important things: “Is not richer the one who has more, but the one who need less”. We will never forget this experience. It has been and it will be one of the best one in our lives.

We would also like to say thank you to IKEA for giving us this opportunity. We are sure it will make us grow and become better people! And of course to all of you who have followed us on the blog and are leaving so many nice messages in the intranet. Warm greetings to all the ones who are part of this big family!

The end and the begining - by Carolina Garcia

IMS Co-Workers- Lithuania Here We Come!

By Lynn GregoryMay 13, 2013

Lynn Gregory from IMS (Indirect Material Services) UK, Gisela Exler from IMS Sweden and Katie Brown from IMS North America are on an adventure to Lithuania! A couple of us have met on one or two occasions, but overall this will be a new experience to share as IKEA co-workers. We have been emailing back and forth to each other, also to the IKEA Foundation with lots of questions about the program and what we need to do in preparation for the trip. We all have our own personal reasons why we want to be part of the experience and have exchanged them freely. It’s obvious over email, we are all so excited to learn how Save the Children can improve the lives of the children living in institutional care in Lithuania. We are also in agreement this will be an emotional journey for all, so we plan on bringing quite a few tissues with us. Many of us have been told this will be a life altering experience, so we are willingly embracing it. Thank You IKEA for giving us the opportunity to be part of making a difference in the Children’s lives in Lithuania through Save the Children.

IWitness Global Citizens Blog