The director of a kindergarten school in Nadi has been selected at attend the Asia-Pacific Regional Early Childhood Development Conference in Siem Reap, Cambodia from March 1 to 3.

Shabreen Nisha, 30, the director of Lil Champs Preschool and Daycare is looking forward to attend the conference.

“Being a global leader with the World Forum for Early Childhood Care and Education is a great honour and privilege for Fiji and for me professionally and personally,” she said.

Her passion for young children and their families has motivated her to search for newer heights in these areas.

“It is a celebration of success and challenges as we fully understand how children develop, learn, play and grow together even in the most undeserved circumstances,” she said.

“It is this young and vulnerable child that needs us to elevate them with the best conditions ever and that is their rights,” she said.

Ms Nisha has been involved in this sector for the last nine years.

The Global Leaders for Young Children programme at the World Forum Foundation seeks to identify and develop the next generation of early childhood leaders throughout the world.

The Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC) will continue to be the key partners with Global Leaders.

Global leaders undergo a rigorous professional development online, face to face at ARNEC conference in Cambodia before the World Forum Conference in Auckland in May.

“Together with this I’m doing online courses in Science of Early Childhood Development with Red River College in Canada,” she said.

She has the support of the Fiji Early Childhood Teachers Association (FECTA) as its main thrust in the professional development of teachers.

“FECTA connects us to World Forum and in return we extend our work in communities in advocacy for young children, particularly those at high risk and improving conditions for young children globally,” Ms Nisha added.

“My passion is to do advocacy on children’s rights and provide children with positive, social interaction and nurturing environment to build a healthy living in which children are fundamental to growing brains.

“Child advocacy plays a big role and have achieved major gains for children in the past decades.”

Furthermore, the conference is jointly organised by the government of Cambodia through its Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and ARNEC.

The theme of this conference is: ‘The transformative power of Early Childhood Development: The importance of holistic interventions’.

It is supported by UNICEF, UNESCO, PLAN International, Open Society Foundation, Save the Children’s Fund, and Child Fund International.

Edited by Rusiate Mataika

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