Dr. Thidar Htwe Win drew small engagement curriculum to foster value and connection of the local children with their locality. To do this, the school children were asked - "what are the most beautiful and valuable places for them in their village and around it."  By asking this, we could draw out what the children unconsiously valued.

At first the children were too shy to speak in front of the crowd. We persuaded them with incentive of rewarding them with cute stickers. This helped them to become more engaged. We could even create a competitive environment among them.

Lessons from the field:

From this case, I (Khin Khin Nyein a student of Anthropology) have learnt the kind of strategies that could be used to draw children's attention. Unless I do not use the right strategy, it can be difficult to get some young school children to open up in front of strangers.

By using different strategies, we could link many other aspects. For example, educate them about washing their hands before eating and after, think about the hygiene of eating local homemade snacks and ingredients in them, and how to throw litter in the right coloured dustbins. We did this practically by demonstrating and also offering them local snacks. Because the act of eating and practically connecting it with various points of awareness, the school children were able to effectively separate the litter they were producing on spot, register cues without fighting and follow better hygiene rules.