Hopes high for year of rapid growth
The New Year begins with more than 8,000 young children taking part in Zippy's Friends in four countries - and hopes are high that another five countries will have joined the programme by year's end.In Goa, India, classes are running in five primary schools and one kindergarten. This is the first time the programme has been run outside Europe, but the transition to an Asian setting has been remarkably smooth. Teachers in Goa were asked whether they felt the programme was culturally appropriate for their children, and all of them said that it was.
Some of the children have become so enthusiastic that they have written letters to Zippy and drawn pictures of him. You can see three examples of their work here.
Expansion will continue later this month with a training course for ten teachers in Durham, in northeast England. Classes will start soon after, making Durham the third English Local Education Authority to launch Zippy's Friends, after Southampton and Spelthorne (Surrey). More authorities are expected to start classes when the next school year begins in September.
Amigos do Zippy, the Brazilian version of the programme, is scheduled to start in March. A co-ordinator, Miriam, has been recruited and seven schools have signed up.
Discussions continue with potential partner agencies in a number of other countries and we hope that Zippy's Friends will be launched later this year in Canada, Iceland, Norway and the United States.Partnership for Children director Chris Bale explained that most mental health promotion programmes for children are designed for one country or even one city. But Zippy's Friends has been an international programme from Day 1.
'That's easy to say, but in the early days, when we were piloting and evaluating the programme only in Denmark and Lithuania, we really couldn't be sure whether other countries would be interested,' he said. 'That's why it's so exciting now to see the programme spreading so quickly - we've already gone beyond Europe, we'll add North and Latin America this year, and we're also having discussions with agencies in Africa. So, Zippy really is going global.'
Meanwhile, back in Lithuania, 670 teachers have been asked for their opinions on the programme. All of them said that it was well-organised and useful for children. Eighty-eight per cent wanted to run the programme again, and several mentioned that parents were keen for their children to participate.
Interestingly, more than 97 per cent of teachers felt that the programme had helped them as well as their children. In particular, they said the programme increased their understanding of young children and improved communication within the classroom.
'This is something we often hear,' said Chris. 'Although Zippy's Friends was designed for six year olds, it also seems to help people of 26, 36, 46 and 56!'