With support from USAID, the Coordinating Comprehensive Care for Children Project (4Children) was tasked with reviewing and documenting opportunities to integrate early childhood development (ECD) into HIV programming. Written for USAID and PEPFAR implementing partners, with a focus on OVC practitioners, this is a user-friendly compendium of current resources, information and job aids for early childhood care, stimulation and education.
The compendium begins with a brief overview of the importance of the early childhood period generally, and more specifically, its importance for HIV-impacted infants, children and families. Following this overview, there is discussion about ECD job aids, that is, various tools, visuals, tips and suggestions, and how they can be applied via platforms and entry points such as clinical health care, family case management and home visits, early childhood education and parenting programs. The compendium presents ideas on 1) how to select the right job aid(s) for your program, 2) how to integrate job aids into programming, and 3) contextualizing content for your program, country and other considerations. The compendium is then divided into sections:
- ECD job aids for quality care, stimulation and education of young children include specific examples of tools, visuals and tips that workers can use within programming with caregivers of young children.
- Key ECD messages are short examples of key messages that workers can give to caregivers regarding the care, stimulation and education of young children.
- Key ECD resources are links to existing information on early childhood care, stimulation and education that may be referred to when developing or strengthening ECD integration in an OVC program.