Little Ripples

Little Ripples is a refugee-led Early Childhood Development (ECD) education programme, initiated by i-ACT, operating in refugee camps Goz Amer and Djabal, eastern Chad. The programme builds the capacity of refugee women to implement and manage in-home preschools and to improve the social-emotional, cognitive, and physical development of refugee children. Little Ripples focuses on preschool for children ages three to five. Experiences during these years affect the development of brain architecture, which provides the foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health.

• There is a serious need for quality Early Childhood Education in refugee settings, particularly with a focus on play-based and social-emotional learning, positive behavior management, and mindfulness.
• Hosting preschool in the existing home spaces of refugees living in camps reduces the costs of building school structures and the barriers of access to education for young children, and directly integrates the community into the education solution.
• Empowering refugees to adapt and lead an education programme fosters ownership from the outset, ensures the solution is culturally relevant, and enables the programme to be sustainable beyond the support of international aid agencies.
• Providing quality and comprehensive training for ECD teachers improves the social-emotional and cognitive development of children and increases student engagement and attendance rates.
• Integrating water, sanitation, and hygiene curricula into the daily learning and routine of preschool students effectively improves children's hygiene behaviors and transfer of information to their families.