Women’s organisation for Socio-Cultural Awareness (WOSCA)
Creche Initiative – Safe Beginnings for Young Children
Support received from : DMF
Creche Initiative – Safe Beginnings for Young Children
Every child deserves safe, nurturing early care that supports growth, learning, and family resilience.
The Creche Initiative provides a safe, nurturing space for children aged seven months to three years, ensuring well-being, nutrition, and holistic development while caregivers engage in livelihood activities. The Creche Project delivers intensive day-care and early childhood support across Sadar and Harichandanpur, and has expanded services into Sundergarh to broaden regional reach.
Through a network of 187 crèches in Sadar and Harichandanpur, the project provides safe supervision, complementary feeding, early stimulation, and routine health monitoring for children aged 6–36 months, enabling caregivers to pursue livelihood activities with greater confidence. In addition, 15 creche centres in Lahunipada block of Sundergarh have been established under the District Mineral Foundation (DMF), Sundergarh, extending the model to new communities and strengthening local convergence.
Each crèche runs a structured seven-hour day that blends guided play, language and motor-skill activities, hygienic complementary feeding, and scheduled rest, creating predictable routines that support physical growth and early learning. Daily operations integrate nutrition and health: children receive complementary feeding and regular growth monitoring, and crèches are linked with Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) and Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) to ensure timely care for SAM/MAM cases. Nutri-gardens, hygiene sessions, and parent engagement activities reinforce household practices and foster local ownership.
Across Sadar and Harichandanpur, 55 crèches in Sadar serve 1,456 children across roughly 1,450 households, while 132 crèches in Harichandanpur support 2,761 children in 122 villages, together reaching over 4,200 children; the 15 DMF-supported creches in Lahunipada further expand this coverage and deepen links with district health and social protection systems. Caregivers and community volunteers receive ongoing training and mentoring so quality of care and early childhood development practices are sustained at each site. By integrating health, nutrition, psychosocial care, and ECCD, Creche creates a replicable model of inclusive childcare that strengthens families and grassroots systems. The project’s convergence approach—linking crèches to NRCs/CMAM, building caregiver capacity, and fostering parent ownership—demonstrates how locally adapted solutions such as nutri-gardens and community-led hygiene drives can be scaled. Ultimately, the initiative reinforces every child’s right to dignified early care while boosting caregiver confidence, economic stability, and community resilience.
