In today's Bangladeshi society many poor working mothers are raising their children as single parents. All of them have to work to survive. With the help of Phulki, for the first time, these women are realizing that they have the ability and the right to help themselves and their families. In this changing society, Phulki has worked to fulfill the rights of the disadvantaged through its projects. Phulki provides a complete childcare program from 6 weeks to 2 years prior to children's' enrollment in primary school.

The export-orientated garments industry as the first modern industry to employ primarily women provides hundreds of thousands of women with access to the organized job market. Yet it is a struggle for women with young children to combine work with caring for their babies. With long hours and full weeks it is virtually impossible to provide them with the necessary nutrition found in breast milk.

In response Phulki has created a series of factory-based child crèche facilities for children between 6 weeks and 2 years giving lactating mothers access to their infants during working hours. These centers are created with the compliance and enthusiasm of the factory owners and the mothers themselves. Thus although initially funded by Phulki, by introducing cost sharing between the mothers and the factory owners it is possible for Phulki to maintain a purely consultative role. Through regular meetings a feeling of ownership is sustained by the employer and employees working together for the crèches management.

In order to ensure our community childcare program is sustainable Phulki has begun home-based childcare. Home-based childcare differs from community-based childcare in that the service is operated from the care givers home extinguishing the cost of rent (the largest cost in community based day care). The mothers' contribution therefore goes directly to the care-givers salary and the materials of the center which it can adequately pay for independently of external sources. The home-based network has the potential to reach wider than community based services and therefore reach more working mothers bringing ECCD development to low income families at grassroots level. Also the care-givers are experiencing a new skilled working opportunity and the opportunity to become a successful local entrepreneur.

By establishing innovative and sustainable child care centers Phulki has began to tackle a wide and diverse need for childcare. In order for the demand to be met it has been necessary for Phulki to share its experience with other organizations and individuals so that they might extend childcare services. We noted the shortage of trained caregivers with knowledge of early childhood development. In order to rectify this issue Phulki has established a training centre providing a free eight week course on child development. Phulki has turned its attention to training childcare providers and child centre managers providing them with a certificate on the completion of the course. Many of these participants will be self employed running their own day care centers.

Early childhood care and development is aimed at children between 2 and 5 who have yet to enter formal education. The approach is based around psycho-social development through play. ECCD activities emphasize the need for children to grow up healthy, well nourished, protected from harm and with a sense of self worth and identity. It must be seen as an obligation of the state and its adults to protect the individual child and create conditions in which all children can develop their potential finding enthusiasm for the learning process. It has been shown that with comprehensive early childhood development children are less likely to drop out or repeat years in the formal school system. This potentially leads to increased economic production in later years.

In training new caregivers and managers of child care facilities a new non-formal skilled group is able to grow. Those unable to afford more formal education are thus able to benefit from being taught a skill that can directly benefit themselves and their local community. Such an empowering process can create an atmosphere of social entrepreneurship which will in turn spread new energy into wider development projects.

In creating a larger base from which a child-care system can develop we are broadening the availability of child-care to people at all levels. Through our training centers it will be possible to ensure childcare at grassroots level. Poor families that have little knowledge of the benefits of early childhood care and development practices will in future see their children benefit through such training.

It is hoped that Phulki's childcare training program will help meet the problems anticipated by the phasing out of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) which will be complete by January 2005. In order to answer the fall out from the garments sector it is hoped ex-garment workers will turn to childcare instead for their livelihoods.

Phulki realizes that its goals cannot be achieved without the participation of the ommunity, business and the government. Therefore our advocacy and outreach program ensures early childhood development is an internationally recognized right. It is important for the continuity and success of Phulki's work that international companies recognize its principles. Therefore Phulki has been in constant consultation with multi-national organizations such as Nike. We make them aware of the factory law requiring child care and urge them to demand that goods bought from Bangladeshi manufacturers' factories have a child care facility. As a result Nike, Reebok, Levi's and Phillips van Heusen have agreed to include the provision of childcare as one of their compliance standards for their overseas manufacturers.

Between the ages of 8-12, children living in slums are in great danger of succumbing to conditions of poverty into which they were born. To build awareness among the slum community about their personal and environmental hygiene, nutrition, safe drinking water and sanitation, Phulki has developed the Child to Child program. The central realization of this approach is the understanding of the central role older children play in caring for their younger siblings. This initiative, conceived by the institute of Child Health London, was first put into practice in Bangladesh by Phulki in 1993. First initiated in the sweeper colony of Gulshan Taltala Park it was in 1996 replicated in Kallyanpur pora. The program begins with 10 children aged 8-11 years who are selected and trained by Phulki staff. They are taught about primary and preventative health care, personal hygiene, nutrition, immunization, child rights, gender issues, use of safe drinking water and sanitary latrines. Each of these children is then assigned to pass on what they have learnt to 10 of his or her brothers or sisters and friends. They must also involve friends' families and their own family in the learning and action. In this way children are able to mobilize their community to take initiatives to improve their own living conditions. Through this approach within a span of 3 years Phulki has brought revolutionary changes in the life style of about 2500 people.

With 9 years experience in promoting hygiene through the Child to Child Approach Phulki has established a training centre with a view to disseminating its knowledge to others involved in similar projects. The five day course equips the participant with a clear concept of the Child to Child approach. They will have the ability to ensure child participation, identify how to incorporate Child to Child in their own programs and will gain knowledge of the PRA technique with children. The Resource and Training centre is an important model for the dissemination of the Child to Child approach nationally and internationally.

Within the hygiene package our Child to Child leaders are taught about personal hygiene such as washing their hands, using the right material such as soap, ensuring that their garbage is disposed of and being aware of disease. They are taught about how to obtain safe water, are made aware of pollution and shown how to purify and preserve their water. Through a series of questions about what kind of environment they would prefer children come to the realization that they would like and can achieve a hygienic environment.

Income Generating Program

Consultancy for factory based childcare services

Phulki brings new factory based day-care centers into operation on the understanding that the employers themselves will ultimately sustain the project. During the one-month inauguration Phulki will train a supervisor of the factory, nominated by the factory management to run the center once Phulki have withdrawn. Phulki charges Tk. 10,000 in consultancy fees during this period. After the center has been brought into operation over one month the factory owner has two choices in order to sustain the project:

Technical support to public and private sector for childcare

Phulki offers the same service that we offer to factory owners to both the public and private sectors. We establish the centre for the fee of 10,000 and provide continued consultancy. We have initiated child care in this way in both government departments and private organizations such as other NGO's and businesses who continue to use Phulki's consultancy services.

Fair Labour Association (FLA) social auditing

Phulki is an accredited paid monitor of the FLA. Phulki evaluates each factory's code of compliance in order for the FLA to suggest ways to improve their facilities.