My C4CD Class

Name of storyteller: Tshering Choden 

Project and location: Prescription to Play (P2P) Phuentenchhu Primary Health Center, Tsirang District

Tell me how you first became involved with the parenting program, and what your current involvement is.

I was invited to participate in the community meeting by HA sir and all mothers of young children participated in the community meeting for one day. During the meeting, we were told about the importance of caring for young children and how we can support the healthy growth of children when they are very young. We were told about the class that BHU will organize and if we participate it will greatly benefit our children. Mothers like us from rural towns participated in the meeting. After that, we were provided information on the timing of the class. I participate in the c4cd class which is held on the MCH day. Till now I attended 1, 2, 4 & 5 classes but I missed the 3rd class.  In the class, we sing songs, play games with our children and watch books.

From the classes I attended, I learned about the games and activities that I can play with my child when I have free time and I can talk to her anytime, anywhere. My daughter is seven months and she is happy being in the class with other mothers and children around. In the olden days, children's upbringing was not as good as they used to get scolded, and now with the class, I learned better ways of bringing up my child like playing, talking to her nicely, and teaching new things words and sounds through songs. With this kind of method of upbringing, children have changed and with the amount of time I spend I think my child will become very intelligent. As per the age, we are asked about what my child can do or not (DMS screening) and this is very useful as I will know whether my child can move fingers, smile or not, understand things or not, mingle with others or not and if they don’t do we can practice the activities or go to the hospital for more check-up. This helps us to be alert about how my child is progressing. As a mother, I have also become confident after participating in the session, especially singing together. Usually, we are shy as most of the meetings in the community are attended by other family members usually our husbands and fathers.

I feel that there could be many children for example who cannot talk and if the parents had the knowledge of caring for children at an early age their children would not have hearing and speaking problems. I realized that talking, playing and regularly checking up on our children will help them become healthy and grow up nicely so I found parent knowledge about child development is very important.

BHU staff HA sirs are very confident and they always encourage us to attend the classes and make a point that it will only benefit our children. They are our teachers, very friendly and because they taught us the games and activities and regularly check our children are growing of happy and healthy.