Photo source: Partnership Officer Huang Zixi

From September 9 to 11, 2024, Zhang Jia, Head of Corporate Strategy of Boehringer Ingelheim (China), Qian Yufei, Deputy Director of Strategy, and Wu Wenqian, Corporate Communications Specialist, visited Kaiji Preschool, accompanied by the project staff of HPP.

Since 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim and HPP have collaborated to support the Longling Biai preschool. In February 2022, Boehringer Ingelheim began to support the Kaiji Village preschool in Xindian Town, Qiaojia County, to solve the problem that 3-6 kids in the local community have difficulty getting high-quality preschool education.

On 9^th of September, Wang Lin, the Section Chief of Education and Sports Bureau welcomed and thanked the visiting group, and said that after the project had started, more and more children in Qiaojia could receive high-quality preschool education, and they would do their best to cooperate with and support the project work.

On 10^th of September, Principal Yang of Xindian Town Central School introduced the development of preschool education in Xindian Town for the visiting group, saying that the project has brought great changes to the development of preschool education in Xindian Town. 

Afterwards, the visiting group visited Kaiji preschool, observed the classroom environment created in the preschool, the corner activities, indoor and outdoor play teaching aids and listened to the teacher's picture book reading  lesson. After communicating with the teacher Meng of the preschool class and the principal of the central school, the visiting group said that the hardware facilities of the preschool class were perfect and the corners are colorful and diverse. Although it is the beginning of a new semester, the new children's ability to adapt to the preschool class is very good, and the project results can be seen by everyone.

During the period, Teacher Meng led the children to carry out outdoor activities, and the visiting group also participated in the games, doing the train into the cave and the small game of 123 Silent People , and the playground echoed with the laughter of the children. 

After returning to the classroom, the visiting group shared with the children the carefully prepared toys - magnetic pieces. The children looked at the novel toys and immediately began to build small creations. In the afternoon, in order to further understand the status quo of left-behind children and families, the visiting group visited 3 families of children in the preschool class under the leadership of teacher Meng. Through communication, they understood the current situation and needs of children and their families, and expressed concern for them.

On 11^th of September, the visiting group visited the Kunming office of HPP, and they said that the project visit was very meaningful, and they hope to have the opportunity to visit other rural children's classes later. In the development of health education and daily teaching activities, Ms. Zhang Jia also put forward her own suggestions, hoping that the project and teachers can pay more attention to children's oral health problems, improve teachers' skills in this area in teacher training, so that teachers can guide children to brush their teeth correctly and protect their teeth in daily teaching. At the same time, she believes that 3-6 years old children can learn some simple gender education, so that children can distinguish the difference between boys and girls, know their own gender, further understand themselves, strengthen children's gender awareness, and establish a sense of privacy protection as early as possible.

In the future, we hope to reach more rural preschools classes in the future, so that more children can enjoy high-quality preschool education in closer places.

Project introduction:

The Qiaojia Kaiji POF funded by Boehringer Ingelheim (China) , and HPP cooperates with Tengchong Education and Sports Bureau to assist in the implementation of the "One village, One preschool" policy. The project takes early education as the entry point, improves the hardware facilities and teaching aids of preschool classes and organizes professional and systematic training for teachers regularly. The project team regularly supervises preschool classes to help teachers solve difficulties and problems in daily teaching activities. In addition, the preschool classes have set up the parent committee, carried out parent training and promoted preschool-home co-education. The project focuses on game-based teaching, provides tools such as teacher management kits and teaching materials, improves the coverage of preschool education in rural areas, and improves the quality of preschool education in rural areas, so that more children can receive high-quality preschool education.

This article represents the views of the author and does not represent the views or positions of the donor.