BY SARAH BRAHMA, STAFF REPORTER
On 3rd September 2021, OneSky, a globally recognized NGO aiming to help vulnerable young children by ensuring they have access to loving, nurturing care and quality early education held a session in the E3 Summit organized by MUN Impact. The session started with an introduction of the organization by Tazmin. Annie Fromson Ho, a presenter from OneSky took over and began by thanking MUN Impact for the platform. She then moved on to the history of the organization, which was indeed an inspiring story. The story highlighted that every child has unlimited potential and has the right to have full access to loving, nurturing care and quality early education. If given access to these, every child can have a happy and safe childhood..
Annie shared that OneSky is similar to a door of new opportunities and gives her a sense of satisfaction. Going further, she shared the mission and vision of the organization which is to provide nurturing, responsive care and early childhood education to every child that unlocks their hidden potential. She briefed the audience about where OneSky held a presence (China, Vietnam, Hong-Kong S.A.R., China, Mongolia). Next she presented a factual situation: “The care children receive during their first 1,000 days can determine the trajectory of their entire lives.” This fact influenced the OneSky Approach, which is based on proven practices, centred around responsive care, and adapted to serve specific needs of children and their caregivers. Annie added that the 20yrs old organization has been recognized by the Skoll Foundation, IKEA Foundation, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, among others. She supported it with a few statistics that were shocking. She mentioned that OneSky has trained over 60,000 caregivers, reached over 227, 812 children and indirectly reached 650,000+ children!
Following this, she emphasized the need for quality early childhood education in Vietnam. She spoke about rapidly growing industrial zones in Vietnam which attract migrant workers, however 70% of the workers are women and 75% of the factory workers lack access to quality childcare. After this, she presented OneSky’s solutions to tackle the problem. This included three approaches: training for workspace, parent education, and care for children. She also reinforced the concept that OneSky’s solution was done through direct partnership with the local and national government. Thereafter she showed us how OneSky has actually created an impact. She spoke about how the OneSky Home Based childcare program has been found to improve and sustain home-based childcare quality, and improve child outcomes such as fine motor skills, visual perceptions and early learning composite scores. Coming to the end of the presentation, she explained to the audience about how they could join or contribute to OneSky. She added a few statements by volunteers of the organization convincing the attendees why they must volunteer. A few example workshops and student clubs were also shown. She then mentioned a Fireside chat, that will take place on September 15th, 7 pm EST and any questions about the organization would be clarified.
Miss Lisa Martin, executive director of MUNI, took over and briefed the audience about how MUNI related to OneSky. The mission of OneSky aligned with SDG Goal 10: Reducing Inequality and SDG Goal 4: Quality Education. She shared a motivating story from her personal life. She spoke to the participants about how being a part of organizations such as MUNI or OneSky can actually create an impact. She supplemented this by informing the audience about how the two-decade old organization created a change at the policy level in China and encouraged people to think about quality early childhood education. She said with emphasis “every voice matters”. After this engrossing talk, a couple of questions awaited the presenters in the chat. An attendee asked, if they could join the organization as an individual? The answer to this was a yes and many other organizations.
Overall, it was an informative, engaging and flawlessly conducted session. The Admin team ensured that the session was conducted smoothly and frequently dropped required links. All the questions in the chat were entertained and the attendees seemed impressed from the session as they dropped their comments on the chat. We must try our best to contribute or raise awareness about such organizations to ensure a better future, thus contributing to the SDGs!
To see the full session, click here.