This new report describes what parents think about inclusion, participation and safety in the education of their young children.

As part of a concluding four-year study on improving the learning context for young children in a low-income community in Rio de Janeiro, staff interviewed, among others, the parents and adult care-givers of children aged 0 to 5 who live in the community of Rocinha. The interviews were focused on the particular issues of inclusion, participation and safety of the children in the community and in their early education centers.

Parents stressed the importance of their role in integrating the children into the family life and listening to them even though conditions limited the children’s opportunities. “They have a voice. They must be heard; they must be respected. And we have to runa backwards as adults to encourage that”.

Parents recognized the need to strengthen ties with their neighbors and with their schools despite the limited presence of public resources in the community. While our respondents noted the disparity between the demand and the supply of early childhood education places in Rocinha, those with children in such centers recognized the resources the centers offered including care and protection, food and adequa-te sanitation and learning.

This report was written by CIESPI researchers Eliane Gomes, Leandro Castro, and Renata Mena Brasil do Couto.

This report can be accessed here.

For more information on the project, click here.