OneSky’s Village Model offers an affordable and replicable approach to mitigating the damage done to young children left behind in rural villages by parents who have migrated away for work.
We serve all the children in these villages where, at any given time, up to 85% of the parents are away.
Early Learning Center
An Early Learning Center is provided for all children in the village, ages 3-6, irrespective of the family’s ability to pay. The child-centered curriculum emphasizes using responsive care to improve cognitive, social-emotional development, and school readiness while providing a safe atmosphere where children find their own voice and feel nurtured and protected. As part of our efforts to keep families together, many teachers are local mothers who, now with employment opportunities directly in their villages, no longer have to travel far distances to support their families financially.
Family Skills Training
Parenting skills and responsive care training, benefiting infants, toddlers, and their preschool-aged siblings, is delivered to grandparents, parents, or other primary caregivers through group trainings at the OneSky Family Center and via home visits. The focus is on providing nurturing care in daily life, with an emphasis on attachment and bonding, brain development and stimulation, and on fostering early communication.
Community Engagement
This critical component is geared toward strengthening now disintegrating rural communities and providing a nurturing home for young children despite parental absence by offering trainer-facilitated village gatherings, monthly community projects (community garden, field trips and treasure hunts with preschoolers, etc.), and cooperative childcare to give weary grandparents regular respite.
