We are happy to announce that Ubongo is one of the recipients of Human for Development Innovation Fund’s (HDIF) Round 3 grants. HDIF already funded Season 1 and 2 of our early childhood educational cartoon, Akili and Me, as well as a series of caregiver engagement content. This is complemented by Tunakujenga segments and PSAs, which help parents with critical caregiving advice and easy-to-follow activities for early stimulation and meaningful play.
A randomised controlled study by Prof. Borzekowski from the University of Maryland found that children who watched an hour of Akili and Me every day for a period of one month, showed a 12% increase in early cognitive development assessment, then children who watched another cartoon.
Prof. Borzekowski is one of the leading international researchers on children, media and health, and has led a number of impact evaluations of Sesame Street, UNICEF’s Meena, and other youth media programs around the world. She has also conducted a randomised control trial in Rwanda assessing the impact of adapted Akili and Me edutainment content in Kinyarwanda.
Moreover, our own impact analysis on caregiver content showed some improvements in positive parenting amongst caregivers who viewed our PSAs.
Our plans for HDIF Round 3
With this additional funding from HDIF, we plan to create new seasons of Akili and Me that will focus on better preparing 3 to 5 year olds to start the first grade, by developing pre-literacy, numeracy, motor skills, social emotional skills, and other critical cognitive skills.
In addition to creating more Akili and Me content, we will also be developing more caregiver engagement content that promotes positive parenting habits, including reading with your child, positive discipline (not using corporal punishment), early childhood nutrition, hand-washing skills and more.
We will also be piloting early childhood kits that we will contain Akili and Me content, Tunakujenga PSAs and videos, and more caregiver content that we will share with distribution partners already working with different communities across Tanzania.
