COVID-19 disrupted the lives of children around the world, interrupting optimal child development. Given the uncertainty of the world due to these disruptions in education, Colors of Kindness empowers children in low-resource settings through holistic SEL. Our programming provides access to a healthy, stable environment that improves a child’s ability to stay engaged and process information.
Aiming to improve children’s 1) social and emotional skills, 2) wellbeing, and 3) academic outputs, teachers are trained on SEL fundamentals and implementation of this hybrid model. The program provides SEL curriculum via audio podcasts that are embedded within an interactive digital workbook with visual aids that feature our culturally sensitive, gender neutral blobs. Within the 10-weeks, the 5 CASEL SEL skills are broken down into two-week segments. The intersection of these themes and activities reflects the growing need for childhood pedagogies to include human-centered approaches integrating social, emotional, cognitive, and physical aspects of learning. Each week, activities include an opening exercise, breathwork, a main activity (i.e., Emotions Charades or Dream Mapping), a yoga pose, a check-in using our emotions thermometer, and a closing gratitude practice. Children are also prompted to complete a challenge, which aims to give them a task to focus on throughout the week.
Colors of Kindness was born from UNHCR's HEA COVID 19 Challenge, and was piloted in Bangladesh in Bangla & Rohingya with 10 virtually trained teachers and 137 children, including a high percentage of girls and Rohingya refugees. Our findings indicated that there was a 16.5% increase in SEL competency, and 99% increase in mood and positive outlook amongst the children. The 0 infection rate amongst participants and families, showed in-person instruction can be safe. It is being translated into Spanish, French, and Arabic, and adapted for early childhood [specifically 3-6 year olds]. It has also being adapted into a Learning Workbook with Education Above All for 50,000 offline learners in India, Kenya, Palestine, etc. In the fall, a CoK program will begin in the Nakivale Camp in Uganda.
The program is available under a CC-BY-NC-ND-International 4.0 License at https://colorsofkindness.org/ for non commercial use only. Given the nature of the trauma sensitive content, the program is designed to safeguard the children, and does NOT allow for derivatives to be made. Localization and training are suggested, so please email info@amalalliance.org for more information.