Early Stimulation is an educational outlet for children 3-6 years old who are given the opportunity to develop in four fundamental areas: Fine and Gross Motor Skills, Socialization, Cognition and Language Skills. Activities focused on creativity and expression, sports, story-telling and drawing, spark children’s participation and sense of leadership.

This program has proved vitally important, particularly since the children we work with generally live in situations of extreme poverty. They may also be left in the care of an older brother or sister, who may themselves still be very young, while their parents work to support the family.

FAI uses a playful approach to this program in which kids can acquire knowledge through their interaction with others; this also promotes the ability to work in a team, to learn about the human body, and to develop skills that lead to easier negotiation with their surroundings.

Based on the conditions in the communities where FAI works, our educational workshops focus on prevention, principally in terms of caring for one’s health, care for the environment, prevention of sexual abuse, nutrition, and rescuing traditions, which arise from observation and analysis of the challenges facing residents day-to-day. Such analyses serve as our baseline for determining how to prioritize themes in each community, always honoring our commitment to gender rights and equality.

According to feedback given to our facilitators by elementary school teachers, children who attend FAI’s workshops and activities are noticeably confident and sociable, displaying better motor, cognitive and linguistic skills in their first year of schooling than those who do not.

his positive reaction has inspired the establishment of a strong partnership with members of the educational sector who not only support our work, but also recommend our activities to parents so they will continue to allow their children to attend and will contribute to the developmental processes FAI promotes within communities.