Sustainability
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January 2021 Volume 2 / Issue 7 The www.thegoodsight.com Good Sight Sustainability SDG Special Frontrunners World Change Starts with Educated Children.® Over 18 Million Children Benefited Worldwide Room to Read delivers physical literacy resources during school closures to over 500,000 children in Asia The Best way to Good Sight better the world Dear Reader, The Sustainable Development Goals are the common goals which all the countries aspire to achieve for making a world Editor where everyone can live a decent life. After decades of work Asit Srivastava by countries and the United Nations, the 17 SDGs were Bhesaja Choudhury finalised with a deadline to achieve these by 2030. It was adopted by all the member countries in September 2015. Creative Head Arvind Das Legend has it that a squirrel also helped Lord Rama when he Marketing Head decided to build a bridge over the sea to reach demon king Nimesh Lal Ravana’s kingdom. Even as an army of monkeys worked day and night to complete the work, the squirrel also joined Cover Images them in the herculean task. When Lord Rama saw the little Abhirup Dasgupta creature carrying pebbles in its mouth and dropping into the sea, he appreciated the squirrel’s work and said, “Did you all Team TGS notice that it is the tiny pebbles brought by the squirrel and other such small creatures which are filling the gaps between the huge stones? Also, did you realise that the grains of sand brought by these small creatures bind the whole bridge and make it strong?” A mega project can never be completed by the main players alone. They need the support of all, and however small, an effort made with dedication should always be appreciated. SDGs are global goals. A mega project. While governments are the main players in this, non-profit and for-profit (Corporate Social Responsibility) organisations can make vital contributions to this, with determination and dedication, much like the squirrel. Editors Asit Srivastava Bhesaja Choudhury Towards equitable quality Working for sustainable All for good health, Pathway back to education future wellbeing of mother eyeglasses: and child Resuming eye-screenings with COVID-19 safety 08 48 88 protocols Facilitating GOOD Catalysing actions to 124 education, gender meet nutrition goals A healthy world begins equality with healthy mothers and children Empowering farmers 14 56 96 to grow and sustain Integrating food Achieving SDGs through and nutrition ecosystem-based 132 security approach Railway children on the right track For HER education 22 62 102 136 Are we on track to Lessening achieve Zero Hunger hardships, bettering by 2030? lives CAF India’s march Focus on to achieve SDGs underprivileged community development INSIDE 28 68 108 initiatives On a mission to Dedicated to the mission create child friendly of eliminating poverty- 144 communities Beyond SDG 6: related diseases How clean water and sanitation are integral to the Sustainable Developing 32 Development Goals children holistically 76 with alternate care Driving towards water, income and Improving 114 livelihoods security nutrition through biofortification 152 Photo Credit Abhirup Dasgupta 40 84 6 | THE GOOD SIGHT | January 2021 THE GOOD SIGHT | January 2021 | 7 oom to Read’s Comprehensive on a strong foundation of three pillars of literacy, Literacy Programme aims to help namely orality, orthographic expertise and children become independent readers exposure to a variety of text. This comprehensive for life, have an enhanced world view approach to reading develops both reading and be capable of making informed skills and a habit of reading among the children, Rchoices. supported by provision of material, training of teachers, regular monitoring and feedback along Literacy is one of the most foundational with community engagement. empowering skills for today’s world. Whether digital or on print, we are reading all the time. However, the year 2020 has been full of challenges Deep reading enables us to sift through loads and opportunities. Owing to the pandemic, the of information in print (or digital versions) and schools shut down and all face-to-face teacher make informed choices as an independent critical trainings received a massive set back. One of the thinker. Trying to get to the nuanced layers of worst affected were the early grade children, who, Towards meaning in a text is a unique human feat that due to the digital divide, did not have access to needs to be painstakingly learnt, through both, the range of online educational resources being explicit instruction and a variety of enriching provided during the lockdown. The risk of learning exposure to language and books. loss increased manifold, more so for the first- generation learners, who had little or no support equitable quality Comprehensive Literacy experience in Room to at home. Read involves explicitly designed reading and education writing instruction in Hindi in early grades, based Hence emerged the plan to provide a combination Room to Read has been working to make reading a part of life in children and believes this is crucial to meet the nation’s commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal in education Room to Read is an international NGO working in the field of education. Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read’s innovative model focuses on deep and systemic transformation within schools in low-income communities through collaboration with local communities, partner organisations, and governments to develop literacy skills among primary school children and ensure girls education at secondary school level. Room to Read India was established in 2003 and presently have programmes in 9 states, including Chhattisgarh, Delhi NCR, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Distribution of literacy kit to ensure that learning does not stop. 8 | THE GOOD SIGHT | January 2021 THE GOOD SIGHT | January 2021 | 9 Project: Comprehensive Literacy for Early Grades SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all of online and offline resources that aimed to Learning in the time of pandemic cater to all the relevant stakeholders. Read-aloud Lakshmi Kanel, a teacher at Government Primary videos, flipbooks, literacy-related audio activities, School, Awaya Phalaya, Barwani, MP was deeply radio and TV programmes, stories through IVR, affected by the struggles of her students, many worksheets, letter cards etc. were some of the of whom were first-generation learners. In her resources made available to children on regular words, “It was painful to watch children struggle, basis. learning at home and parental engagement, even worse to see the realization on their faces a pictorial parent handbook was shared with the that they were at a disadvantage”. In late August, parents. Relevant reading material was provided Lakshmi received a booklet of worksheets to teachers, in addition to creation of online designed by RtR consisting of exercises, puzzles, courses and audio-visual material. quizzes, colouring sheets and most importantly, opportunity to observe, explore, articulate and The online resources were disseminated through learn. “I was pleasantly surprised by the response appropriate government channels, including we received, the children simply loved them,” she Diksha and Whatsapp groups created by teachers. recalls. Arvind a first grader was already close to The offline resources were distributed through finishing the exercises, “I want more books like teachers, volunteers and Room to Read team on this,” he demanded. the field. Lakshmi saw that her students were now able to Impact learn with minimum support. The fact that they Tangible: Room to Read has benefitted 4.3 million were enjoying learning was influencing their children in India since 2003 and set up more confidence and behaviour too. “They seemed so than 9,000 libraries so far. In the year 2020, happy and gleefully brought the worksheets to RtR content reached 1,62,685 teachers, parents show me their work,” she says with a satisfied and government officials directly and 6,55,980 smile. indirectly. A total of 1,48,85,017 direct messages have been sent out via email, phone and other digital means. 5,66,611 children have received non-digital material including books worksheets, etc. Additionally, 18,439 hours of virtual training Research-based pedagogy a must to ensure quality education. and support has been provided to teachers, school Children taking charge of their own leadership, authors and illustrators. learning. disseminate relevant content to children, teachers Intangible: The on-ground challenge of reaching and parents. Replicability & Scalability each child forced us to think of alternative ways Room to Read works on a scaffolded ‘I do, We do, to bridge the digital divide, including radio, TV Monitoring You do’ approach whereby it first demonstrates and offline Literacy kit. This has helped create an RtR with a strong Research, Monitoring and the model in selected government schools, then environment of literacy at home while empowering Evaluation (RM&E) Department focuses on well- work in close collaboration with the government the parents to be equal partners in their child’s defined research to inform practice, extensive to scale up the model across the entire district and learning. monitoring and support through staff at the field/ finally hand over to the government to implement district/state level and assessment