Stories from the Field

Improving health through clean cooking

In the bustling heart of New Delhi, a small room measuring 6 by 6 feet holds a story that resonates with countless families across India. This is the home of Nibha Devi and her family, who, like many others, migrated from Bihar in search of a better life. For the past two decades, they have called this modest space their home. For years, their daily cooking routine relied on the traditional "chulha" fuelled by wood and coal, filling the air with dense biomass smoke. This environment took a toll on the health of Nibha Devi's family, especially the older children, who frequently suffered from persistent coughs and breathing difficulties, resulting in frequent visits to the doctor, as Nibha Devi illustrates with a packet of old prescriptions.

In 2017, a government-subsidized scheme allowed Nibha Devi’s household to switch to cooking gas, which produces less harmful pollutants although still a fossil fuel. The impact of the switch was immediate and profound. Nibha Devi recalls that the shift to cooking gas changed their lives. “No longer did we have to worry about the harmful smoke that affected the children and our health, it brought convenience of cooking,” she said. Nibha Devi's story shows the transformative power of clean cooking solutions, providing not only improved health but also a renewed sense of hope and well-being.

Photos and story courtesy of Warrior Moms

Hope for Clean Air

Novita Natalia Kusumawardani is a community program manager and co-founder of Bicara Udara, a community-based group that is working to lobby policymakers to address air pollution in Indonesia. As a mother, she was concerned about the how the high level of pollution in Jakarta could affect her unborn child. She also witnessed how a friend’s young son started to experience frequent respiratory issues when pollutant levels increased. After taking the child to various doctors and hospitals, her friend was told that the son’s health issues were indeed linked to the poor air quality.

This story is just one of many in terms of how air pollution imposes a significant cost to families—including health care expenses and loss of productivity due to sick days. But it is also stories like this that fuel Novita in her work. After years of advocacy, she is now working with the Ministry of Health in Indonesia as a member of the Committee of Respiratory Diseases.

This story is just one of many in terms of how air pollution imposes a significant cost to families—including health care expenses and loss of productivity due to sick days. But it is also stories like this that fuel Novita in her work. After years of advocacy, she is now working with the Ministry of Health in Indonesia as a member of the Committee of Respiratory Diseases.

She has a message for others who may be trying to start a movement in their own cities: “Public pressure can play a significant role in influencing policies. When individuals, communities and organizations come together to voice their concerns, it creates a powerful collective voice that policymakers can't ignore. The evidence around the harms of air pollution is extremely robust, so collaborate with experts and health professionals to bring opinions and research findings to policy discussions. Our hope for clean air goes beyond our families; it extends to our communities and the planet we share. When we advocate for clean air, we stand not just for our children, but for the elderly, the vulnerable, and for all living beings that depend on the air we collectively breathe.”

Photos and story courtesy of Bicara Udara

The After-Effects of Floods

It was the middle of the night when 4-year-old Naila woke up screaming to the sound of gunshots. The shots had been fired to alert the village that the nearby dam had broken, unleashing floods that would ultimately destroy her home and her school. Together with other villagers, in a state of chaos and panic, Naila’s family was forced to evacuate to the nearby city of Ghotki. This unexpected event was extremely traumatizing for young Naila, who had trouble sleeping for several nights afterward. Naila is not alone: Other parents reported that their children displayed signs of distress including unusual clinginess, disrupted sleep and appetite, reduced interest, and mood swings.

After a few weeks, Naila’s family returned to the village and attempted to adjust back to daily life. Since Naila’s school had been destroyed, a temporary learning center was established to provide educational and play-based activities for the children.

Naila’s teacher, Dost Mohammad, had survived the floods and remained dedicated to providing education, support and routine care for the children. Even though all the schoolbooks and supplies were destroyed in the flood, Mohammad improvised with low- or no-cost materials and innovative teaching methods. However, the trauma lingered, as seen in the behavior of the children: Many were disturbed, fearful, cranky and unable to concentrate in the new makeshift school setting. As a result, many children, including Naila, ended up mostly absent from school.

Photos and story courtesy of Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA)

Working on Lead Poisoning in Bhutan

Deki Pem is the Deputy Dean and Assistant Professor of Nursing and Midwifery Department at Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan.

Over 15 years ago, she enrolled in a midwifery course in Australia, motivated by the desire to bring back evidence-based research on child-growth and development. Later in life, Deki became a mother in two, and her passion for early childhood development grew even stronger. 

 As part of her ongoing research, Deki observed that cognitive development in children in Bhutan was lagging. She realized that environmental factors could be influencing this delay. Specifically, she suspected that toxic heavy metals, such as lead and arsenic, might be contributing to this issue. Further research revealed that many children aged 6-22 months were not receiving adequate nutrition, particularly iron and calcium. This deficiency made children more susceptible to absorbing higher levels of lead. To investigate this further, Deki collaborated with a US researcher to conduct a blood lead surveillance study in Bhutan in 2018. The results were alarming: 43% of children had blood lead levels exceeding 5 µg/dL.

Determined to identify the source of this lead exposure, Deki conducted another study in 2022 to examine potential lead-containing items. The study revealed that lead paint was a major source of contamination.

Initially, government stakeholders were not that interested in the issue of lead poisoning. However over time, with the support from colleagues in the MOH, WHO and UNICEF, there became sufficient interest to organise a third more comprehensive study on lead poisoning in 2024, with results made publicly available.

One of the key findings from the third study was the presence of lead in religious items in Bhutan, including Jinlab, a pill everyone takes including young children as part of religious practices. This discovery prompted the Ministry of Health (MOH) and other stakeholders to collaborate on identifying how lead had entered these products and to explore ways to eliminate the use and manufacture of lead-contaminated items.

Deki offers this advice to ECD advocates focusing on lead: "It is crucial to have and share research and data to raise public awareness, especially among parents. I know the study reached some parent groups who were deeply concerned about the findings."

Photos and story courtesy of Deki Pem

Climate Change Affects the Running of Childcare Centers

Jaanki, an Anganwadi worker, believes that early childhood care and education are crucial for building a strong foundation for a child’s life. Children who attend Anganwadi centers receive age-appropriate developmental support through interactive activities that nurture their physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. These centers serve as the backbone of early childhood care in rural India, where many people live with limited resources, and some areas even lack basic services like electricity and water supply.

According to Jaanki, extreme weather conditions—such as intense heat, heavy rains, and severe cold—disrupt the proper functioning of the centers. This year, she has noticed longer and hotter days compared to previous years. As a result, children in her village have been falling sick from dehydration and heat strokes, leading to a significant drop in attendance at the center. Jaanki, a passionate worker, is deeply concerned about this decline. She wants every child enrolled in her center to thrive in terms of education, health, and nutrition.

To address the situation, Jaanki made home visits to counsel families on providing adequate nutrition and taking proactive measures to support their children’s well-being. Her goal was to encourage more children to return to the Anganwadi center. In mid-May, however, the district administration took the difficult decision to close all Anganwadi centers until the heat wave subsided. This setback slowed Jaanki’s efforts to bring children back to the center, but her commitment remained unwavering. She joined the DASTAK campaign, working to raise awareness and provide services to combat infectious and communicable diseases in her village.

Photos and story contributed by the Centre for Learning Resources, India.

Youth-led ‘Dr. Air Bear’ campaign raises awareness of air pollution in Myanmar

A group of Yangon students have raised awareness of the country’s growing air pollution problems through a creative campaign that last week inspired Myanmar’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology to begin releasing air quality readings. The data has not previously been released to the public.

In early December 2019, , a group of 17-23 year old students, launched a first of its kind campaign dubbed ‘Air Bear’, through the support of Save the Children’s SHIFT campaign accelerator program . Prior to this campaign, it was difficult for citizens in Yangon to access air quality dta that can help inform daily decisions such as whether or not to wear a mask or whether to exercise outside at certain times of the day.

Through their own citizen science project, AQY began measuring the air quality across the city and started posting these readings to their own Facebook page twice daily. Dr. Air Bear, a giant teddy bear model made from white cotton, is the centerpiece of their campaign and was designed as a public demonstration that makes impact of air pollution more visual to the public.

Throughout the campaign, Dr. Air Bear toured the stress on a small rickshaw-like platform. As the days passed, pollution caused the bear’s fur to turn darker. After two weeks of campaigning, Dr. Air Bear came to life in a human size costume to model behaviours that were more environmentally friendly, such as walking to work and taking public transport.

The campaign reached 7 million people on social media and gained 20,000 followers to Air Quality Yangon’s own Facebook page. The group’s campaign has also been covered by almost every major media outlet across the country.

Story extracted from Vero-Asean. Photos by Save the Children.

OASIS Schoolyards: Building climate resilience through elementary schools

Across Semarang, Central Java, a quiet transformation is underway. In the face of mounting climate threats such as heat waves and tidal flooding, the Semarang city administration is taking action, with a focus on schools. This effort, known as the OASIS Schoolyards initiative, is led in collaboration with anchor partners Resilient Cities Network (R-Cities), Milklife and a growing community of supporters including Kuark and Polytron.

Short for openness, adaptive, sensitization, innovative and social ties, OASIS Schoolyards offer a transformational approach to reimagining school environments as “urban oases”: green, cool, inclusive and multifunctional spaces. These redesigned schoolyards support children’s learning and play, while developing a culture of climate awareness and sustainability across the school community.

First launched in Paris in 2018, the OASIS Schoolyards program was developed in response to rising urban climate risks, particularly extreme heat waves that threaten the health of children and communities. Drawing on nature-based solutions and participatory design, Paris has since succeeded in transforming nearly 200 elementary schoolyards into spaces that support learning and social interaction, while reducing the impact of heat waves. Recognizing similar challenges in the context of Asian cities, in 2023 R-Cities adapted the approach in Semarang and Quezon City in the Philippines.

Semarang is no stranger to climate risks. In 2024, 129 schools were forced to close due to severe flooding, with more than half of them being elementary schools. These closures disrupted students’ learning and exposed them to health risks such as respiratory problems and poor concentration due to extreme heat. School infrastructure, including playgrounds and sports fields, also suffered significant damage.

This article was published in thejakartapost.com. Click here to read the full article. Photo Courtesy: Milklife

When a hurricane washes away a region’s child care system

Three-year-old Fitz Lytle was burying a plastic cheetah toy in a tub of lavender-scented sand.

“Is Fitz going to help them?” asked Shelby Ward, an early childhood mental health specialist sitting nearby.

“A police car will help them,” Fitz replied, steering a matchbox-sized police car around the mound where the cheetah’s ears poked out. The rescue vehicle was one of several figurines, along with fences, homes and plastic tea lights symbolizing electricity and candles, chosen for their relevance to the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The Category 4 storm dumped nearly 15 inches of rain on this North Carolina town late last September and caused more than $59 billion in damage to the western part of the state.

Ward and a colleague were providing Fitz and other young children play therapy, an evidence-based therapeutic approach in which trained therapists help children express their emotions through the natural language of play and toys. These employees of Verner Center for Early Learning, a nonprofit in Asheville, have held such sessions in public libraries and the church since November to help young children process trauma they experienced in Helene.

Story extracted from Hechinger Report. Credit: Sara Murphy

The world is getting hotter – this is what it is doing to our brains

When Jake was five months old, he had his first tonic-clonic seizure, his little body stiffening and then jerking rapidly. "It was extremely hot, he had overheated and we witnessed what we thought would be the scariest thing we would ever see," says his mother, Stephanie Smith. "Unfortunately, it wasn't."

Seizures began to crop up often in hot weather. As soon as the stifling, humid days of summer would arrive, the family would resort to all kinds of cooling methods and a fierce battle to keep the seizures at bay would ensue.

Following a genetic test at the age of 18 months, Jake was diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome, a neurological condition that includes a form of epilepsy and affects around one in 15,000 children. Seizures are often accompanied by intellectual disability and a range of comorbidities such as autism and ADHD, as well as difficulties with speech, mobility, eating and sleep. Heat and sudden temperature changes can bring on a seizure.

Jake is now 13 years old, but has endured countless seizures with the turn of the weather, his mother says. "Increasingly hot summers and heatwaves are adding to the burden of living with this already devastating condition," says Smith.

Read the full story on BBC.com. Photo sourced from Serenity Strull/Getty Images.