Family Strengthening Intervention for Early Childhood Development (ECD)

Qualitative research from past studies was used to adapt an existing family-strengthening intervention for HIV-AIDS affected families to extremely vulnerable families with children 0-3 in order to improve early childhood development outcomes. This small scale pilot was carried out to test the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention for extremely vulnerable families with young children in Rwanda.

In the first 10 families the intervention consisted of 21 modules, in the second iteration of the study with an additional 10 families, the curriculum was summarized into 15 modules. Modules were delivered by trained bachelor-level interventionists/home-visiting coaches and were delivered to families one on one in their respective homes. Modules were delivered on a weekly to biweekly basis and were flexible to the families needs and other responsibilities.

Inclusion criteria

• Potential participants must live in the study catchment area
• Caregiver(s) raising a child between 6 and 3 years old and Ubudehe 1 or 2 (Rwanda's poverty classification system)
• We will enroll both single and dual caregiver families to reflect population dynamics.
• Legal guardians may be aunts, uncles, grandparents, or foster parents

Exclusion criteria

• Potential participants that do not live in the study catchment area
• Do not have at least one child between the ages of 0 and 3 living in their household for whom they are the primary caregiver
• Are not classified as Ubudehe 1 or 2
• Have severe cognitive impairments which preclude their ability to speak to the research questions under study