Why EduSoar

The early childhood years offer crucial opportunities to cultivate healthy learning and living habits that they will carry throughout their lives. The years of early education are a time of great potential and vulnerability. How these children spend their early years learning, and what they learn, has a profound influence on their lives.

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Research in the fields of health, financial backgrounds and early education have provided insightful data as to how early education and care, particularly in the first 3-5 years of a child's life, has life-long impacts on not just their education and career outlook, but their mental and physical health, as well as cognitive ability. This effect is further amplified in children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

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The impact on physical health in particular, is one impact that ignited this project. The Under-Five Mortality Rate in Indonesia is 21 out of 1000 children; the mortality rate in NTT exceeds the national average at 58 out of 1000. This means that among the 2.2 million children in the state of NTT, hundreds of children are dying annually of preventable causes, with the main causes of death being pneumonia and diarrhoea; the risk of both could be significantly reduced through education and good hygiene habits. ​

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Children born in these less developed areas of Indonesia have lower likelihoods of securing good jobs that allow them to break the poverty cycle. This is exacerbated by the difference in access to good education in rural areas of Indonesia as compared to more developed city centers like Jakarta. Starting a foot behind, the skill gap between privileged and unprivileged children only becomes larger. What was previously a mere year's worth of schooling slowly becomes more significant as these underprivileged children get left behind in school when mandatory education starts in Indonesia at grade 1. 

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EduSOAR seeks to educate these children, cultivate healthy habits, and set a runway for them to soar beyond pre-school. Hoping that through this, lives can be not only enriched but also saved through prevention, rather than cure of these preventable infections and diseases.