Over the past few months, COVID-19 has completely transformed the way children – and caregivers – live their lives. At the height of the pandemic, 80% of the world’s students were out of school, while at the same time, parents were experiencing unprecedented economic stress and job loss.
To support families during this difficult time, in March, parenting experts developed a resource package to encourage positive parenting and decrease violence in the home. Ever since, these resources have spread like wildfire: at the end of May, the package had reached 34 million families in 174 countries across the globe. They have been translated into over 100 languages and adapted to fit the needs and context of individual countries. One of those countries was Kyrgyzstan, where nearly one-third of the country’s 5.9 million people are under the age of 15.
The lockdown revealed how much more work needs to be done on parenting education in our country.
Kyrgyzstan Without Orphans first became involved with the parenting tips when they supported with adaptation, translating it into Russian, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Kazakh and Tajik to make the package accessible to families in Central Asia. Seeing the value of the resource, the organisation took it one step further, transforming the tips into a short animation and airing it on public platforms.
These animations were aired on two national television channels, reaching over 2 million families throughout the country. They were also adapted to be stand-alone audio pieces, which were broadcast throughout the city of Bishek by vans with speakers.
In addition, Kyrgyzstan Without Orphans disseminated the animations through their own channels, along with other online news outlets within the country.
“Right now, we are planning ahead in the expectation of another possible lockdown,” Putilin said. “Preventing violence within families is one of our top priorities.”
Learn more about the dissemination of the parenting package.
Have you adapted the parenting tips to fit your country context?
If so, we want to hear from you! Please email Elissa at elissa.miolene@end-violence.org or fill in these surveys in English and Spanish.