Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
Save the Children
[Fulfilling Shanghai Migrant children’s rights to play, protection and development, China]
[China]
Project title
Fulfilling Shanghai Migrant children’s rights to play,
protection and development
Applicant
organisation
Save the Children
Geographic scope
Duration of Grant
Project period
Programme
partners
Shenhua Private Migrant Primary School, Dachang Town,
Baoshan District, Shanghai, China
January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012
January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012
Dachang Town Government, Baoshan District, Shanghai
Shenhua Private Migrant Primary School, Dachang Town,
Baoshan Disctrict, Shanghai
Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (½-1 page)
The project‟s overall objective is to fulfil migrant children‟s rights to play, protection
and development in Dachang Town, where there is a migrant population of over
150,000. This report details the activities and outcomes achieved in the project from
January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. The approaches taken in this project are
based on successful child protection project experiences developed in many
provinces of China by Save the Children. The main achievements of the project
include:
 Conducting child-led research to promote the engagement of children in the
process of setting up the Children‟s Activity Centre (“CAC”), and as well as to give
them a voice to raise issues of concern in their lives. Training on child rights and
child participation was also delivered to 20 children and 5 adult assistant
teachers.
 Based on the results of this child-led research, the children‟s activity centre was
set up; over 1000 migrant children have access to quality after-school services.
 Conducting training on child rights and child participation for 20 child managers
and training on how to run a children‟s activity centre for 5 adult managers. The
children‟s activity centre is currently managed by a 20 member child manager
group with support from adult teachers. Using the children‟s activity centre as a
platform, 55 child participation events were conducted, which mainly focused on
children‟s health, protection, life skills and development. Over 500 migrant
children were involved in these activities, of which 80% also gained related
information on protection, life skills and had their self-confidence enhanced as
well.
 Active child participation was evidenced through the children‟s management of
the CAC, the children‟s newspaper, the children‟s drama group, and the
children‟s photography activity. It provided children a good chance to show
themselves from their point of view.
 800 migrant parents participated in the training respectively on child health and
nutrition, and parent-child communication. 85% parents gave positive feedback
on the training and are willing to take time to communicate with their children, with
a focus on not only their studies, but also their daily life.
 20 core teachers participated in the training on drama in education and 100% of
the trained participant teachers started to use drama teaching methods in their
daily teaching.
 About 20 IKEA employees together with their children engaged in 7 events
project activities, which including project opening ceremony, parent-child
interaction activity on Mothers‟ Day, Water Resource activity, Home safety
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IKEA Social Initiative
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activity, Green Planting activity, Wall painting activity and project closing
ceremony.
Developing IEC materials to deliver the information on safety, protection, health,
life skills and family education respectively for children and parents.
BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION (1-2 page)
The situation
Brief analysis of the issues addressed by the project
Baoshan, located in the north of Shanghai, is a district mainly settled by migrant
population. Relative data shows that by Sep of 2011, the registered population in
Baoshan district was 0.9 million and the migrant population was 1 million. There are
150,000 migrant workers with approximately 35,000 school-age children in Dachang
Town, which is located in the southwest of Baoshan district. As one of the largest
private migrant schools of Dachang Town, Shenhua Primary School has enrolled
more than 1,000 migrant students.
These migrant children have no place to play after school, because the community
where they live is so crowded and unsafe. Furthermore, their parents are busy with
their work so that they usually pick the children up very late and can only spend
limited time on accompanying and communicating with their children. Meanwhile,
most of the parents don‟t know how to communicate with their children and educate
them in a positive way. Children‟s access to quality after-school service and parenting
skills needs to be improved.
Project beneficiaries
The project is designed to target migrant children (6-13 years old) in Shenhua Private
Migrant School. It is to pilot a model to promote migrant children‟s protection and
development. A total of 1000 children directly benefitted from playing in the Children‟s
Activity Centre and were involved in different kinds of child participation activities.
Additionally, 100 care givers were targeted to improve their focus on children‟s health
and nutrition as well as their parenting skills. 30 teachers benefitted from the training
on drama in education to improve their teaching skills. 20 IKEA employees and 3 town
government partners were also involved in project activities and gave some support
as well.
Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
Key issues addressed by the project
With the development of China‟s economy and society and the accelerating process
of urbanization, an increasing number of migrant workers are flowing from rural areas
to cities. According to China Migrant Population Development Report, the migrant
population has reached 230 million in 2012, with an increasing trend of migrant
children coming to the cities to live with their parents. Additionally, it is indicated by the
„Research Report of China Children‟s Charity Needs‟ that the population of migrant
children under the age of 14 has boosted to a staggering number of 18.33 million. The
Sixth National Census of Shanghai shows that there is a migrant population of 8.977
million in Shanghai which accounts for 39% of the total population.
Research from relevant authorities demonstrates that, migrant children not only
excluded from urban public service system, but also facing many practical problems.
According to a needs and assessment on migrant population conducted by Save the
Children, in many migrant communities, migrant children do not have access to basic
facilities for the children to play or engage in activities which are crucial for children‟s
psychosocial development. A survey conducted by Fudan University points out that,
because of parents‟ busy and work for long hours, migrant children are deficient in
necessary care and educational support compared to non-migrant urban-city children.
At the same time, discrimination, various unfair treatments and limited support from
family aggravate the situation, and mean that many migrant children lack confidence.
Main project results and outputs
The overall aim of the project is to improve the protection and development of migrant
children and set up a healthy and supportive environment in Shanghai. There are four
overall expected results including 17 associated activities and 7 outputs:
Result 1: Children have access to quality after-school services and are empowered as
well as more adapted to urban life
Activity 1: Child-led research is conducted to collect children's ideas on the setting up
of CAC and local issues that worry children.
Activity 2: Children‟s Activity Centre is set up for 1000 migrant children to play and
communicate with each other.
Activity 3: Children‟s manager group is set up and work together with adult managers
to manage the centre. Related training on UNCRC is delivered respectively for
children and adults.
Activity 4: A children‟s drama group is established, to help children show themselves
and promote their development including strengthening their communication skills,
their self-confidence, their team work and their imagination and creativity.
Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
Activity 5: A children‟s photography activity is conducted for children to improve their
interests in photography.
Activity 6: A children‟s newspaper interest group is set up to empower children to
make a children‟s newspaper.
Activity 7: A green planting activity to increase the children‟s sense of environmental
protection, their ability to take care for others, as well as to strengthen their capacity
for observation.
Activity 8: A mural painting activity is conducted to involve children in the school
development, which promotes the children‟s sense of belonging to the school.
Activity 9: Other CAC-based activities are also held to increase the children‟s
knowledge & skills on road safety, health and self-protection. Children's confidence is
strengthened.
Activity 10: Employee Engagement of IKEA staff.
Result 2: Improved parenting skills and supporting family environment
Activity 11: Parent-child interaction activity is organised for migrant children and their
parents, to provide more chances for children and their parents to increase the
communication and understanding.
Activity 12: Parents training is conducted for parents to improve their parenting skills
and support family friendly environment.
Result 3: Improved child friendly school environment for migrant children
Activity 13: Teacher training on child rights and child participation is delivered to
adult managers, to consolidate the idea of learner-centered teaching, so as to provide
support for students‟ life and study and create a friendly atmosphere for children.
Activity 14: Teacher training on drama in education is conducted for 20 core teachers
of project school, with the aims of enriching their teaching method and approach,
improving their teaching quality, promoting the students participation in class.
Result 4: Improved policy and practice for migrant children's issues through advocacy
Activity 15: Conduct project opening ceremony to initiate the project and project
closing ceremony to show the project outputs.
Activity 16: Conduct project orientation meetings and monthly meetings.
Activity 17: Disseminate IEC materials.
Project Outputs:
 Children‟s activity centre is set up based on the child-led research results, and
over 1000 migrant children have access to quality after-school services.
Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
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Training conducted on child rights and child participation for 20 child managers
and training on how to run children‟s activity centre for 5 adult managers. The
children‟s activity centre was managed by child manager group with support from
adult teachers. Totally 20 child managers took turns to manage the CAC.
Various CAC-based activities were conducted to improve children‟s related
information and skills on protection, health, life skills and development. Migrant
children‟s self-confidence was also enhanced.
50 migrant families were involved in parent-child interaction activity and 800
migrant parents participated in the training respectively on child health and
nutrition, and parent-child communication.
20 core teachers participated in the training on drama in education and use the
teaching method of drama in education in their daily teaching.
About 20 IKEA employees together with their children engaged in project
activities.
Developing IEC materials to deliver the information on safety, protection, health,
life skills and family education respectively for children and parents.
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
The project is to fulfill migrant children‟s rights to play, protection and development. In
order to have a better understanding to children‟s needs, child-led research was
conducted to know children‟s concerns. Meanwhile, project orientation meeting was
held to share relevant information about the project with project partners, which
include IKEA, Save the Children, Dachang Town Government and Shenhua Primary
School. It was agreed that project meetings would be held monthly to discuss the
project activities, carry out project planning and finally to conclude project
implementation. During the project implementation, we always consulted with the
school and where appropriate some project activities were combined with their
school-based theme activities, such as the children‟s newspaper, the children‟s
photography activity, the teacher training on drama in education and parents training.
Furthermore, the project emphasized the use of a child-centered methodology to
develop activities, listening to children‟s voices and suggestions. After one year
project implementation, the project has benefited directly over 1,000 children, 800
parents, 20 teachers and 3 officials of Dachang Town Government. 20 IKEA staff
volunteers also participated in kinds of activities like parent-child interaction activity,
home safety activity, green planting, water resource activity and wall painting.
In the following sections, activities which have been carried out have been described
in detail according to the result and activity section:
Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
Result 1: Children have access to quality after-school services and are empowered as
well as more adapted to urban life
Activity 1: Child-led research is conducted to collect children's ideas on the setting up
of CAC and local issues that worry children.
Child-led research is to empower children to lead the research process, from the first
research planning-making, mid-term research implementation, and information
sharing, findings /problems analysis until final action plan.
Before doing child-led research, training on the ideas, the process of child-led
research as well as relevant skills was delivered to 20 child researchers and 5 adult
teachers. After participating in the training, children learned some research skills (like
listening, observation, communication, interview etc.) and developed an
understanding about why we do child-led research and how to do child-led research.
Meanwhile, the adult teachers also knew how to provide appropriate support to
children.
Then 20 children were divided into 5 groups and got out into the community and did
child-led research. They mainly focused on two themes: first, how to collect other
children and adults‟ ideas with regard to the CAC; secondly, to explore the safety
issues in children‟s lives. The stakeholders they covered included children, parents,
community members, police, small traders, gate keeper and so on. In order to ensure
children‟s safety, 5 adult teachers followed the five groups of children. For more detail
on the process, please see the child-led research report (Chinese version). The
outputs as well as the findings of the research were integrated into the project. At
the same time, the participating children further developed various skills and
capabilities through the process of carrying out the research.
Activity 2: Children‟s Activity Centre was set up for 1000 migrant children to play and
communicate with each other.
Based on the child-led research results and outputs, a plan for the establishment of
the CAC was developed, which covered what the CAC would be like, what kinds of
activities would be carried out, the opening times, as well as the name of the new
Centre. After consulting with the children and the school, the opening time of CAC
was confirmed as 16:30-18:00 from Monday to Thursday, 14:30-17:30 on Friday and
twice on weekends per month.
After CAC materials and equipment procurement, 20 children were invited to decorate
the CAC according to their thoughts, to make it more child-friendly.
On 12 April 2012, opening ceremony for CAC was held and over 100 migrant children,
5 teachers, and 2 government partners from Dachang Township Government, 20 Ikea
staff and 2 staff from Save the Children were present. The opening ceremony was
Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
facilitated by 2 children. Speakers included: children representatives, the headmaster,
Dachang Township Government representatives, Ikea and Save the Children staff.
By December 2012, (and since the CAC opening in April), 1200 migrant children have
benefited from the facilities of the Children‟s Activity Centre.
Activity 3: Children‟s manager group was set up and work together with adult
managers to manage the centre. Related training on UNCRC was delivered for both
children and adults.
In keeping with the idea of child participation, the Children‟s Activity Centre was
managed by child managers, with support from adult teachers. Children involved in on
a voluntary basis and spent their spare time to manage the CAC together. Training on
UNCRC and CAC management was conducted to 20 children and 5 adult teachers, to
increase their awareness on child rights and help them to manage the centre well.
The rules for CAC and specific duties of the child managers were also set by all the
involved children after discussion.
In addition, the child manager group met regularly to discuss the problems and
difficulties which emerged in the management of the CAC, and try to find appropriate
solutions. At the same time, the child manager group had a discussion and drafted a
monitoring system, to promote other children getting involved in the supervision and
assessment of their work.
Activity 4: Children‟s drama group was established, to help children show
themselves and promote their better development including strengthening their
communication skills strengthened, their self-confidence enhanced, their team work
and their spirit set up and children‟s imagination and creativity inspired. Drama is a
well proven method to help children express their thoughts and share the topics of
concern. So the project invited Professor Li Yingning, professor of Shanghai Theatre
Academy, to support the children‟s drama activity. 20 children joined in the children‟s
drama group and participated in the activities one afternoon a week. This activity was
to inspire children‟s imagination and creativity via different games and practice. It also
helps children to know themselves and others through body language, expression
and words. In this way, children can best show their lives and the issues they
concerned with. The children‟s drama group provided a unique platform for migrant
children to release their nature and express their feelings. Children‟s communication
skills, self-confidence and team work skills were also enhanced during this process.
Activity 5: Children‟s photography activity was conducted for children to improve their
interests in photography.
Most of migrant children have no chance to develop personal interests. After
consultation with the headmaster and the teachers of project school, a children‟s
Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
photography group was established. IKEA donated 9 cameras and SC purchased 4
cameras for children to learn and practice the photography skills. 12 children joined in
and received relevant training on „knowing the camera, how to use the camera, how to
take good pictures‟. Besides training, we also encouraged the children to take the
pictures to record their lives and some meaningful things, and share these pictures
with other students. In the end, 12 members gathered together to share the pictures
they took and vote for the pictures they most liked, such as the most beautiful picture,
the most moving picture and the best picture from a technical perspective. Children
gained not only fun and photographic skills from this activity, but also the
understanding of their surroundings. It also provided opportunities for children to
express their points of view.
Activity 6: A Children‟s newspaper interest group was set up to empower children to
make their own newspaper.
Children have the right to an opinion; they also have the right to share what they think
about their life. A children‟s newspaper is a good platform for children to share their
ideas and speak out their feelings. It is also a great way to record the children‟s
growth process. A children‟s newspaper group was set up in September and 22
children were involved. Related meetings and training on how to make a newspaper
were held on the 16th and 23rd Sep. 2012. The request for contributions was open to
all students at school. Children involved in the whole process from soliciting
contributions, making contributions, writing articles and paintings‟ review, and doing
the basic editing. By the end of December 2012, the children‟s newspaper group had
received 920 articles and over 230 paintings from all students.
The 1st and 2nd edition of the children‟s newspaper has been printed and delivered to
1000 migrant students for reading and sharing.
Activity 7: Green planting activity was to increase the children‟s sense of
environmental protection, their ability to take care for others, as well as to strengthen
their observation capacity.
To enhance the consciousness of environmental protection of the students, the
project designed green planting activity and involved children in the whole process. 4
small gardens were set up in front of the Centre. After consulting with the children‟, we
purchased different plants‟ seeds and let children plant the seeds in the garden. The
children were responsible for looking after the plants. During this process, the
children‟s sense of environmental protection, patience and observation capacity were
improved.
Activity 8: A mural painting activity was conducted to involve children in the school
development, which promoted children‟s sense of belonging to school.
Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
In order to promote more children participating in mural painting activity, and after
discussion with project school teachers, a painting collection activity was initiated
around the school. Children who were interested could submit their paintings to the
teachers. Finally, 6 drawings were selected to be painted on the wall of school. A
mural painting activity was held on the 9th of December 2012. About 21 children from
Shenhua Primary school and 5 families from Ikea were involved in this activity to
embellish their school and the Centre. It gave children a chance to be involved in the
school development. Their sense of belonging to school and communication between
migrant students and local students was also strengthened.
Activity 9: Other CAC-based activities were also held to increase the children‟s
knowledge & skills on road safety, health and self-protection. The children‟s
confidence was strengthened.
 From the 30th June to 23rd July, 60 migrant children from Grade 1 to Grade 4
and50 parents participated in child safety activities. This was also a follow up to
child led research regarding safety issues. This activity helped children and their
parents to increase their awareness on child safety and related information and
skills.
 School-based theme activities were conducted for World Hand-Washing day. 60
posters and 1000 leaflets were delivered to 1000 students. Related information
about hand washing was shared with all the students. The objective was to
promote the children‟s awareness on hygiene, as well as trigger some change in
their behaviour.
 A non-discrimination activity (盲人走路) was held on 31st Oct.2012. 48 migrant
students participated in the activity. The activity is to strengthen their trust in
others and show respect to everyone in their life, such as people with disability,
classmates with poor performance, the old etc.
 1070 children‟s life skill handbooks have been delivered to project school
students. Through different stories, the book provides some skills and methods
for children to deal with problems they meet in their life. The children show great
interest in the book when they received it – commenting that they were looking
forward to reading it carefully.
Activity 10: Employee Engagement of IKEA staff.
IKEA‟s vision is to create a better everyday life for people. IKEA has devoted itself to
sustainable development for many years. “People & Planet Positive” is the new
sustainability strategy. IKEA focuses on environment, economy and society, to create
a better life for people and communities that IKEA‟s businesses have an influence on.
IKEA also do their best to secure children‟s rights and support human rights and takes
on more responsibilities to civil society by supporting non-profit projects.
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IKEA Social Initiative
In accordance with the culture of focusing on child development and sustainable
development, IKEA staff volunteer actively engaged in the project activities. They
interacted with migrant families and conducted different activities to enhance migrant
children‟s skills and knowledge of safety and environment protection, which received
good feedback from children and teachers. The key activities they engaged in
included parent-child interaction activity, home safety activity, water resource activity,
green planting activity and wall painting.
Result 2: Improved parenting skills and supporting family environment
Activity 11: Parent-child interaction activity was organised for migrant children and
their parents, to provide more chances for children and their parents to increase the
communication and understanding.
In the child-led research, many children expressed their aspiration that their parents
could spend more time accompanying and talking with them. A 10 year-old girl said, “I
completely understand that dad and mum are busy with affording my study, but I‟m
really scared to be at home alone, and I want them to care about me, love me more,
and listen to the voice of my heart.” As is well evidenced, parental love and
companionship is essential to the health and happy development of children. Hence,
the project specially designed parent-child interaction activities to provide
communication channels for migrant parents and their children. On 12th May 2012,
parent-child interaction activity was held for celebrating Mothers‟ Day. About 20
migrant children with their parents participated in this activity. From 30th June to 23rd
July, 60 migrant children from Grade 1 to Grade 4 with 50 parents participated in child
safety activities. This activity helped children and their parents to increase their
awareness of child safety and related information and skills. Children and their
parents engaged in mutual cooperation and discussion.
Activity 12: Parent training was conducted for parents to improve their parenting
skills and support family friendly environment.
The survey conducted by Fudan University demonstrated that migrant parents lack of
parenting skills and don‟t know how to communicate with children in a positive way.
With the aim of improving parenting skills, a series of training on children‟s health and
nutrition, how to communicate with children effectively were conducted by University
Professors. 800 parents attended the lecture on “Child Health and Nutrition”.
Approximately 80 representatives from the School Parents‟ Committee attended the
participatory training on “How to Communicate with Children Effectively”. Parents
gave positive feedback to these training and activities after participating. Some
examples of feedback include a mother who said that she learnt some skills to
communicate with her children, and would change the way she educated her children.
Another mother said that respect and encouragement are the best way to children‟s
development.
Annual Report January 2012- December 2012
IKEA Social Initiative
Meanwhile, 700 Parents education handbooks were developed and delivered to
migrant parents to share how to communicate with children, how to provide study
support to children and how to help children„s good normal behaviour habits.
Result 3: Improved child friendly school environment for migrant children
Activity 13: Teacher training on child rights and child participation was delivered to
adult managers, to consolidate the idea of learner-centred teaching, so as to provide
good support for students‟ life and study and create a friendly atmosphere for
children.
 On 10th March 2012, training on UNCRC and an introduction to child-led
research (including ideas, method, process and how to provide support to
children in the process of child-led research) was delivered to 5 adult teachers.
From the training, the adult teachers learnt some new ideas about how to work
with children and how to provide support to children‟s activities.
 On 7th April 2012, before CAC opening, training on how to manage the centre
was delivered to 5 adult teachers, to make them further understand this project
and their roles and responsibilities.
Activity 14: Teacher training on drama in education was conducted for 20 core
teachers in the project school, with the aims of enriching their teaching method and
approach, improving their teaching quality, promoting the students‟ participation in
class
The growth and development of children requires appropriate education and guidance,
in which teachers play a significant role. It is considered that modern education
advocates the learner-centred teaching method while focusing on the interaction of
teachers and students. To improve teaching quality and enrich the teaching methods
of the private migrant school, teacher training on drama in education was delivered to
20 core teachers, with the aims of enriching their teaching method and approach,
improving their teaching quality, promoting the students‟ participation in class
teaching, stimulating students to think positively and inspiring the students'
imagination and creativity. In the final evaluation, 100% of the 20 core teacher
participants think it is necessary to put the teaching method of drama in education into
class teaching. And many of them have adopted such a new method into their daily
teaching.
Result 4: Improved policy and practice for migrant children's issues through advocacy
Activity 15: Conduct project opening ceremony to initiate the project and project
closing ceremony to show the project outputs.
On the day of CAC opening ceremony, representatives from Dachang Township
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IKEA Social Initiative
Government, IKEA and Save the Children attend the activity. It is the first time to
develop children development project and set up CAC in Dachang Township,
Baoshan District. This was also the first partnership between a corporate donor, a
government department and an international NGO in Dachang Township. All 3 parties
were committed to support migrant children‟s development. Local media also covered
this opening ceremony in newspapers and the internet. Here are some links for the
latter:
http://gqt.baoshan.sh.cn/110/9/201241797422.html
http://www.few.gov.cn/portal/html/qxdt/2012/0420/18816.html
http://www.shyouth.net/html/defaultsite/root_jcdt_dqtx/2012-04-23/Detail_139158.htm
Local government got actively involved in the project and also provided much support
for our project implementation. Through advocacy, we hope the public could pay more
attention to migrant children‟s development.
On 7th Jan.2013, the project closing ceremony was held together alongside the
school New Year Party. Representatives from Ikea, Save the Children, and Dachang
Town Government were invited to attend the ceremony. It made a conclusion to the
project‟s year of activities and showed the outputs. A project brochure was developed
and 9 X-banners were made to share the project with all the participants. After
participating in the closing ceremony, the official from Dachang Town Government
gave positive feedback on the project and said they plan to replicate this model to
other schools and communities.
Activity 16: Conduct project orientation meeting and monthly meetings
At the beginning of the project, it was necessary to conduct a project orientation
meeting with project partners. The purpose was not only to share relevant information
about project, but also to consult the partners‟ ideas and suggestions to the project.
This process underpinned the project‟s smooth implementation. On 15th March, 2012,
the project orientation meeting was held in Dachang Town Government. Both
representatives from IKEA, Save the Children, Dachang Town Government and
Shenhua Primary school presented at the meeting, where it was also confirmed that
the monthly project meetings would be held, to discuss detailed project activities.
Activity 17: Disseminate IEC materials.
In order to disseminate relevant information and knowledge on protection and health,
and advocate the project ideas, the project also developed various IEC materials
(materials about Information, Education and Communication) for children, parents
and other project partners. These included 7 Safety Posters, 3 Hand-washing Posters
and 1 Leaflet, a Children‟s Life Skills Handbook and a Family Education Book for
Migrant Parents.
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IKEA Social Initiative
Management and coordination
It is worth mentioning that that IKEA is not only the donor for this project but also one
of the project implementation partners. At the project orientation meeting, a project
group was also set up, which included IKEA, Save the Children, Dachang Town
Government and Shenhua Primary School. The Deputy Town Chief was the chairman
of the project group. To ensure clear accountabilities, the project implementation
partners made a division to the project work. IKEA mainly took the work of
communication with Dachang Town Government, and IKEA staff engagement in
some project activities. Save the Children was in charge of project design and
communication with IKEA and the project school, as well as making sure monthly
project meetings were held. For the project school identified key teachers to work with
IKEA and Save the Children, which made the project go smoothly and laid a good
foundation for the project‟s sustainability.
ACHIEVEMENTS & IMPACT
ACHIEVEMENTS
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A children‟s activity centre was set up based on the child-led research results,
and over 1000 migrant children have access to quality after-school services.
Children‟s activity centre is managed by a child manager group with support from
adult teachers. Now CAC runs well and more and more migrant children come to
the centre for play and study.
The establishment of the children‟s activity centre as a platform for related
activities: 55 child participation events were conducted, which mainly focus on
children‟s health, protection, life skills and development. Over 500 migrant
children were involved in these activities, of which 80% migrant children gained
related information on protection, life skills, as well as enhancing their
self-confidence.
Child participation was put into practice via child-led research, children managing
the CAC, the children‟s newspaper, the children‟s drama group and the children‟s
photography activity. It provided the children a good chance to show themselves
from their own point of view.
800 migrant parents participated in the training on child health and nutrition, and
parent-child communication. 85% parents gave positive feedback on the training
and are willing to take time to communicate with their children and focus on not
only their study, but also their daily life.
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IKEA Social Initiative
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20 core teachers participated in the training on drama in education and 100% of
the trained participant teachers started use the teaching method of drama in
education in their daily teaching.
About 20 IKEA employees together with their children engaged in 7 events
project activities, which including the project opening ceremony, parent-child
interaction activity on Mothers‟ Day, Water Resource activity, Home safety
activity, Green Planting activity, Wall painting activity and project closing
ceremony.
Developing IEC materials to deliver the information on safety, protection, health,
life skills and family education respectively for children and parents.
IMPACT
 Children‟s activity centre is set up, which provide migrant children a place to play,
study and communicate with their peers.
 Migrant children‟s confidence and life skills were improved from their involvement
in activities, such as child-led research, children managing the Children‟s Activity
Centre, starting up children‟s newspaper, organising children‟s drama group,
children‟s photography activity and other activities related to child protection.
 The project school has introduced the idea of child participation into their daily
teaching and school-based activities.
 The communication between the school and the families has also been
strengthened on the basis of parents training and parent-child interaction
activities.
 Dachang Town Government is willing to replicate the children‟s activity centre
model to other schools and communities and to introduce the training on drama in
education to public primary schools and as part of the school‟s curriculums.
PROBLEMS AND LESSONS LEARNT

At the beginning of the project, the project activities were held separately from the
school-based activities. The school-based activities had already been scheduled
at the beginning of the term, so it is not convenient to combine these two parts
together. But after the summer-term begins, the project group had a meeting to
discuss the next half-year plan and integrate the project activities with the
school-based activities, which also decreased the work load of the school.

For the running of Children‟s Activity Centre, 20 child managers were trained to
manage the CAC, but they needed support from adult teachers. As most of the
adult teachers were busy with their teaching work, they had only limited time to
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IKEA Social Initiative

give support to the child managers. The suggestion is that the school could
arrange a little less teaching work for these adult teachers next year.
For the sustainability of activities initiated, the project will share relevant project
resources including the contact information of experts, suppliers and project
materials etc.

For the future project implementation, we should involve the Town Government
more in relevant project activities, to make them better understand project
progress, as well as lay a foundation for project replication.

If possible, Children‟s Activity Centres can also be set up in the community, so
that they can benefit a greater number of migrant children and their families, as it
will be more convenient for members of the community (parents, children,
residents) to participate in the CAC-based activities.
Sustainability




During the project implementation, the project group has close communication
with each other. For project school, it also delegates some key teacher working
with IKEA and Save the Children. The key teachers have learned some new
ideas and skills from some project activities and start to use these in their work
with children. For example, Sun Yunwen, the teacher who worked with SC staff to
start up the children‟s newspaper, has already taken on most of the work to
support children‟s newspaper. This sense of ownership by teaching staff at the
school is critical for the future development of children‟s newspaper.
At the project closing ceremony, the official from Dachang Town Government was
willing to replicate the children‟s activity centre model to other schools and
communities and to introduce the training on drama in education to public primary
schools as part of the school‟s curriculums if possible.
The combination of effective participation by the school, great support from Town
government, Ikea staff employee engagement and technical support from Save
the Children, provided a sustainable platform for the project. The project school
will take over the running of the CAC and various interests group. Hopefully, the
idea of child participation will be strengthened in the future.
“Following the end of this project, we will continue and further improve the quality
of children‟s drama group and Shenhua Children‟s Newspaper. For CAC, we will
run it well and make it a really happy place for our school students!”
- Deng Jun, Headmaster of Shenhua Private Migrant Primary school.
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IKEA Social Initiative
Monitoring and Evaluation




The project meeting was held per month to monitor the project progress and
discuss the problems emerging in the process of project implementation. It
ensured the project‟s quality and made the project go smoothly.
After the Children‟s Activity Centre opened to all migrant students on 12th April
2012, both Save the Children staff and IKEA staff went to the project school twice
a week with the aims of both communicating with the local partners, as well as
monitoring the running of CAC and giving necessary support to child managers.
For most of the project activities, Save the Children did simple evaluations to
collect the participants‟ feedback and suggestions, which helped monitor
progress and put improvements in place. Also the project group ensured there
were opportunities to listen to the voices of children, parents and teachers, to
understand their views of the project, the problems they are facing, and as well as
give them timely responses on any questions raised.
To know the effect of the project, we invited the professor Fan Bin, the Head of
the Department of Social Work, East China University of Science and
Technology, to do a project evaluation for this project. The results can be seen
from Annex 1: the summary of the project evaluation report.
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IKEA Social Initiative
Annex 1: Summary of Project Evaluation Report
Led by Prof. Fanbin from East China Polytechnic University, the evaluation team
designed and distributed the questionnaire among children, parents, teachers, local
government and IKEA volunteer, followed up by intensive interviews conducted with
the project donor, project partners and Save the Children project staff. A summary of
conclusion is as the following.
1. Children
Evaluation has been focused on children‟s comment and assessment to Children‟s
Activity Centre (CAC) and their suggestions of CAC. Among all questionnaires
collected from 110 children, 76.1% of them have attended various activities based in
CAC. Their most favorite facilities include computer, books, toys and sports
equipment, and their most favorite activities are photography, Children‟s Newspaper
and parent-children interaction events. 83.6% of the respondents share the reason
why they come to CAC that they can learn knowledge and information and play
various games at CAC. 99.1% of the 110 respondents support keeping CAC open to
all students in the future, while arranging more activities with more books, toys, desk
and chairs.
2. Parents
Totally 60 parents participated in the survey. Result shows that 96.3% of the 60
respondents support their children involving in CAC activities. 94.3% takes a positive
view of the CAC support to their children, and 92.6% of the respondents agree that
CAC should be kept opening to the children in the future. As to parents‟ trainings, 62
parents joined the after-training evaluation and 99.5% gave a positive feedback of the
training.
3. Teachers
Among 20 teachers who worked closely with CAC and participated in the drama
training, 16 joined the survey. 73.3% of the respondents agree that the CAC-based
activities satisfied students‟ needs and 50% of them agree that the CAC-based
activities played a positive role to the improvement of children‟s confidence,
self-recognition and communication skills. As to training on “drama in education”, 100%
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IKEA Social Initiative
of the participants expressed their satisfaction to the trainer and their desire of similar
trainings in the future.
4. IKEA volunteer
6 IKEA staff joined the survey, and all of them gave a high recognition of this project.
They agree that they have gained a lot from the participation in the project activities,
and most of them suggested a replication of such a project into other communities. As
to project advocacy, the IKEA volunteer also put forwards some valuable ideas, such
as making some videos to show the project activities to more people, so as to attract
more support from the society.
Experience, Lessons Learned and Suggestions
1. An effective intergration ”Child-centered approach” and daily services design
and inplementaion has played a significant role in this project.
2. A multi-stakeholdger cooperation, including but not limited to resource
mobilization, government support, school participation and coporate donation ,
is a key factor to the success of this project.
3. To expand the service from the campus to the community and later scale-up it,
will be the major task in front of the project team in the future.
4. How to promote a child-friendly community through community based centers
and how to incorporate resources and support from government, community,
corporate,and public, needs to be carefully considered and discussed among
the project team in designing future project activities.
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IKEA Social Initiative
Annex 2: Photo album
Result 1: Children have access to quality after-school services and are empowered as
well as more adapted to urban life
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IKEA Social Initiative
Child researchers consult with younger
Child researchers interview a mother about
children’s
her ideas on the CAC in the street.
Child researchers interview a police man and
Child researchers interview a motorcyclist
consult him on children’s safety issues.
about what he thinks of children’s safety.
A
photo
taken
by
children
to
non-observance of traffic regulations
show
Children show the posters on traffic safety
they designed with other children
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IKEA Social Initiative
How funny it is to play gobang with fellows
in CAC!
Child managers is in group discussion
Puzzle with classmates
The child manager duty schedule
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IKEA Social Initiative
Murals: a chance to show ourselves, and
decorate school by our own hands
Participate
in
the
activities
of
CAC: ’Safety starts from you and me’
It is not only fun to imitate blind walking,
but also understand many principles.
The teacher is directing students how to
take a clear photo.
Children’s newspaper group is checking
Children’s drama group: salute, shake
the manuscripts.
hands, we are good friends!
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IKEA Social Initiative
Volunteers are playing with parents and
Water resource activity: ’Saving water
children on Mothers’ Day
start from us’.
We are being together with children in
Beautify
home safety activity.
planting activity.
our
environment:
Green
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IKEA Social Initiative
Result 2: Improved parenting skills and supporting family environment
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IKEA Social Initiative
It is fun to participate in the parent-child
interaction
activity
with
mum
I can win the first place with my mum!
on
Mother’s Day.
Parents
are
communicating
with
Professors about children’s health and
Parents’ Training: how to communicate
with children effectively.
nutrition.
Parents in the training
Playing games with my mum.
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IKEA Social Initiative
Result 3: Improved child friendly school environment for migrant children
Training
of
Child
Rights
and
Child
Participation
Write down my thoughts and ideas.
Show our group work in the training on
Communication and experience shaing
drama in education.
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IKEA Social Initiative
Result 4: Improved policy and practice for migrant children's issues through advocacy
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IKEA Social Initiative
Ms. Hou, representing Dachang Town
Government, offering her support at the
Wang Lin, representative of IKEA sharing
project opening ceremony
her ideas why they are supporting this
project
Su Wenying from Save the Children makes
Project meeting & monitoring
a brief introduction about CAC
Project closing ceremony: Dachang Town Government is willing to
replicate the CAC model to other schools or communities
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IKEA Social Initiative
Hand washing posters
Safety posters
Hand washing leaflet
Children’s life skill handbook
Family Education Book for Migrant Parents
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IKEA Social Initiative
Annex 3: Case Studies
Case study 1
Grade 5
Huang Jingjing
At the school, we can only play in the playground and after we go back home, my
parents asked me to stay at home and I couldn‟t go outside because the community
environment is not safe enough.
However, things changed after the establishment of
CAC, which offers us a fun, safe and enjoyable place to play. In May, I participated in
the management of CAC as a child manager. I felt really happy to support other
children playing in CAC. Usually, I ask them first what they want to play, and then take
them to the place that they prefer. Through this process, I am getting emboldened,
dare to talk and be independent, and my management ability has been strengthened.
Case Study 2
Class 1, Grade 5
Li Xingjie
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IKEA Social Initiative
After the CAC opened, I participated in many activities, for instance, child-led
research, child safety activity in summer vacation, children‟s photography activity and
wall painting etc. The child-led research taught me how to do interviews, through
which I gained confidence and understood the thoughts of others. Additionally I have
gained lots of knowledge and tips about safety since I participated in the child safety
activity with my mother in the summer. In particular, the children‟s photography activity
was my favorite, as I could explore some problems in our life, then I could remind
others to care about that. Besides, photography enabled me to record and share
happy memories with others. Although it was freezing cold during the Wall Painting
activity in October, I felt a great sense of achievement when seeing my painting works
on the wall.