A triangle of care: how teachers and parents work together to nurture young children in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

"It's been three months. Why doesn't my child know the alphabet yet?"

Many parents ask this question, says Tanzeela, founder of Little Angels Daycare and Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre in Gahkuch, in Pakistan’s Ghizer district. In her community, she explains, education often focuses only on learning letters and numbers.

"The first thing we look at is whether a child is happy when they come to us," she says. "If they arrive happy, we know our curriculum is working. But if a child is reluctant to come to class every day, it means something is not working."

Tanzeela describes the centre's work as a triangle of parents, teachers and students. "If one side is missing, the triangle can't stand," she says. She estimates that about 80% of parents need guidance on child development and that only 20% understand the importance of a child’s holistic development.

Today, the centre serves 90 to 100 children, combining quality education with life-skills development to help them grow into confident individuals. Tanzeela founded it on 23 February 2014 with six children, after seeing that many women in Gahkuch worked full-time but lacked reliable childcare. As parents saw how much their children were learning, enrolment grew to 30, then 50.

Accelerate Prosperity Pakistan, part of the Aga Khan Development Network, selected the centre as one of the shortlisted ventures in its Women in Business programme, providing business training, advisory services and growth-stage funding.

Tanzeela now wants to take the centre's approach further. "My long-term vision is to expand Little Angels beyond its centre in Ghizer, bringing the same approach we use in Gahkuch to every community," she says. "I want to empower women by building on their existing skills, encouraging entrepreneurship and helping them contribute to their communities."

Watch how teachers, parents and a community-led centre support children in their earliest years.