Moorthynayakanpatti is an isolated village situated 85 kilometers away from the nearest city in the Theni District in South India. This area is so remote that it only has a few buses that come anywhere near it, which is significant, as this is not an area where people own their own cars. So, when travel is required, it begins with a 1k. walk to the main road, where the bus will pass… at some point in time.

So it has been no small feat for Sujatha, HHI’s Master Trainer, to reach this village to train 32 mothers how to nurture and best care for their babies. Over the last year Sujatha’s work with HHI has become well known throughout this far-flung region, where news travels via word of mouth from one person to the next. This was how a small local NGO, called “NEWS” came to learn of HHI and then tracked down Sujatha, inviting her to come to their village to support their women and children.

The mothers had never heard how critical the early years are for a lifetime of health, relationships and learning. When they learn that 80% of brain development happens by age 5, and that they can influence this with their everyday actions they become very excited. The women quickly embrace the concepts and begin to make eye contact more often, hold their babies more gently, sing to them more, give them massage, and feed them a broader array of nutrients.

The women enjoy Sujatha and the lessons of HHI are simple and make sense to them. They are now building stronger bonds with their babies and children and building their health with love and nurturing. Another success story from the front lines of HHI, and one that is surely being talked about from mother to mother, friend to friend, from village to village… and the goodness grows on in South India!

This week I have been visiting HHI’s training center in Kerala, India. For the last few days, ten pre-school teachers participated in HHI’s education about the importance of early childhood development and they learned how they can best support children’s healthy growth and development during their most critical developmental time. These women work for the government’s ICDS program, which are early childhood development centers that focus heavily on improving nutrition for the villages with the most disadvantaged and high risk children.

And, of course, they enjoyed singing, dancing and playing with the children! They shared their favorite songs and dances with me, then asked me to return the favor. I put on an impressive Hokey Pokey dance, but I allowed no photographic evidence of this, you will just have to trust me!

Some of these women have been working in their jobs for 26 years! But, they were eager for the information from HHI. They appreciated the small and interactive classes, where they were asked to be creative, to talk, to share and to come up with solutions that they face daily with children. They were excited to learn lessons about child development and came to recognize that some of the children in their centers are delayed, but now they knew how to better support them. The women were also enthusiastic to take their lessons learned back to share in their monthly Mother’s Meetings in the villages, where they are the main community resource person for all parents. They left the training with a greater grasp of child development, new tools and information to lead children and their families to success and with a new sense of pride in the importance of their work.

Now, I am off to Tamil Nadu to meet the village mommies taking HHI trainings.

When I talk to people directly about the impacts of HHI’s work in orphanages, one of the things I tell them is that several orphanages I have visited have reported that, “after HHI training, children die less often.” This is an amazing and almost breath-taking claim – that when HHI trains orphanage caregivers how their direct actions, their nurturing, snuggling and simple acts of love and kindness actually can mean the difference between life and death for a baby! This was proven in studies in orphanages in Eastern Europe after World War II, that children in institutions who were only given food and water often died. What they lacked was love – what could be a more basic human need?

I was asked by a friend yesterday why I have never really publicized this profound outcome of HHI and I admitted that I was afraid that it might make HHI look too grandiose, that we were making outrageous claims and that we could somehow loose credibility. She looked at me with a bit of confusion and again asked, “yeah, but you have heard orphanage directors – several of them – tell you that babies hadn’t died since HHI’s training?” My answer, “Yes, more than once”.

Then, today’s NY Times ran a story about orphanages in Sudan that yet again showed demonstrable proof that teaching and supporting orphanage caregivers to show love to the children kept children from dying. A clip from their article reads, “Nurses are trained to hold and play with the children as they feed and care for them. Medical care has vastly improved. In 2001, 479 children died. In 2006, 186 did, according to UNICEF.”

HHI’s recent collaboration with Christine Chaille and Frank Mahler of Portland State University to create a culturally neutral and globally applicable training for parents/caregivers and teachers in the importance of early childhood development is almost complete - and it is revolutionary! First, it is designed to empower parents, teachers and other care-givers in how their direct actions can better their child’s development. All other early child development training tools focus mostly on listing developmental milestones and do not empower adults on the difference they can make in their day-to-day nurturing, care and interactions. Secondly, the curriculum was consciously created to be culturally neutral. This means that the language, activities and examples were all very carefully chosen with the support of HHI’s experts to be applicable anywhere in the world! It empowers people to act, regardless of specific toys or resources. This curriculum will be translated into over 20 languages, to be used in profoundly impoverished areas, and it will be infused local language, games, songs, dance, and stories to be true to the culture.

PSU’s partnership with HHI will ultimately affect the lives of hundreds-of-thousands of children in developing countries. They are providing the tools that will help overturn the status quo in how orphaned and vulnerable children worldwide are cared for. International aid organizations are already contacting HHI to discuss how they can use HHI’s training model and materials to train the caregivers in their early child health programs. They have visions of using it in a wide range of areas, including: orphanages, refugee camps, resettlement communities, in conflict zones, with HIV/AIDS affected children, and in severely impoverished communities.

I have just returned from three weeks in India where HHI hosted its first Trainer’s Conference. It was an exciting opportunity for all of our Trainers, from three states in India (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Orissa) to work and learn together. It was also our first test run for HHI’s new early childhood development curriculum.

Our new curriculum was written by Christine Chaille, PhD and Frank Mahler, MS. Chaille is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Portland State University. Both Christine and Frank came to Chennai in October 2007 to spend a week with HHI’s Trainers. They learned from HHI’s local experts on the ground and got their feedback on how to best improve the first draft of the new curriculum, and they also were an excellent resource for further professional development for our HHI Trainers.

Christine, Indhu, Sujatha holding Palak, Tapaswini, Delsini, Frank & Laura

After this time of knowledge sharing, the new curriculum is in the final stages of design. By the end of 2007, HHI anticipates having the new Trainee’s Booklet, our first Trainer’s Manual and a short instructional film on baby massage (shot during this trip). The written materials will be translated into Tamil, Malayalam, Oriya and Hindi, while the DVD will have dotSUB technology to allow it to be subtitled in 200+ languages. HHI’s complete curriculum includes the following educational components: explanation of the four domains of development; connections across the domains; variations in development; early brain development; the importance of observation; bonding and attachment; baby cues; the role of play; health and hygiene; baby massage; and then detailed descriptions of the physical cognitive, language and affective development from birth to age five. Our curriculum molds to different cultures easily, using local songs, dance, games and stories. HHI also employs a standardized pre and post test of knowledge, as well as a follow up survey to continue to monitor and evaluate our impact.

Initial interest in applying HHI’s training tools and expertise is extremely high! I have had initial meetings with the India branches of World Vision, CARE, UNICEF, USAID, Catholic Relief Services, and Family Health International. We have also been approached by groups from Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda, Bangladesh, Russia and Haiti. By as soon as this spring HHI may begin working with one+ of these groups to help them apply our tools in orphanages, refugee programs, resettlement camps and other arenas where children are in serious risk. The goodness is growing to greatness!