Revitalized Kindergarten Highlights Work of Community Action Group
A'ATIFIYA, Baghdad – With a grant from the Iraq Community Action Program (ICAP), a community action group in the capital’s A'atifiya neighborhood revitalized a local kindergarten. The kindergarten is now drawing more students and mobilizing citizens to call for improved early childhood education in their neighborhoods. The Al-Shaqiaq kindergarten has become a locus of community activity thanks to the grant, which allowed the community action group to install a new playground for students.
Children outside the Al-Shaqiaq Kindergarten in Baghdad’s A’atifiya neighborhood.
As student enrollment has increased, there has been renewed interest in early childhood education. Parents are now working with community action group members on an ambitious plan to revitalize other kindergartens in the area. Still in its early stages, the plan will seek funding from private donors – a move that further illustrates the sustainability of the community action group model. Demand-driven and enterprising, community action groups throughout Baghdad have become a pillar of Iraq’s nascent civil society, thanks to nine years of USAID support of ICAP.
Filed Under: Civil Society, Conflict Mitigation, Education, Youth, Middle East & North Africa, Iraq