Armenia

Missing out on quality early childhood education is detrimental to children’s development and future learning ability. This is especially true in times of displacement and uncertainty, as children are more likely to struggle with cognitive, behavioral and emotional difficulties, especially at a young age, which further delays their development. With the backing of ECW, UNICEF will support young refugee children and their parents with early learning and development services, which are critical to help them recover and overcome the distress caused by displacement.

ECW’s US$1 million First Emergency Response allocation will focus on increasing access to inclusive early learning services by expanding spaces in public kindergartens. Refugee and host community girls and boys, including children with disabilities, will also have access to psychosocial support, parental education sessions will be provided to improve positive interactions between caregivers and children, and teachers will receive much-needed assistance to help integrate and support these children in their classrooms.

This intervention involves collaboration with central and local government and civil society partners to ensure quality, inclusive, age, and gender appropriate early childhood education and care services for young children, that also benefit their families, especially mothers. At the community level, increased cooperation will be garnered across health and nutrition, child protection, education, social protection, and water, sanitation, and hygiene services. The intervention will address immediate access to safe, secure and protected learning environment for affected pre-school-aged children, as well as quality of early childhood education and early childhood development practices, including through capacity building of education personnel and caregivers.