Burman Hospitality Supports Sesame Workshop India to Empower Early Childhood Education across 1,000 Anganwadi Centers in Uttar Pradesh

Aims to empower 30,000 children across 1000 Anganwadi centers in the state

National, May 2022: Burman Hospitality Private Limited (BHPL), the master franchisee of Taco Bell in India believes in giving back to society and contributing to early childhood education. In line with this philosophy, BHPL has joined hands with Sesame Workshop India, an educational non-profit committed to meet the early developmental needs of young children, to empower Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Uttar Pradesh through its program “Learn. Play. Grow”. 

Taking a step towards providing young children quality and accessible early learning, Burman Hospitality Private Limited’s (BHPL) grant will support Sesame Workshop India strengthen the early childhood education in 1,000 Anganwadi Centres in Uttar Pradesh. The program that’s currently positioned to reach 1.5 lakh children across 7 states, will deliver a holistic educational opportunity for additional 35,000 children between 3-6 years and enable beneficial learning and developmental outcomes for them. 

The intervention will deliver a wholesome program for cognitive, physical and motor, socio-emotional development and the growth of communication, early language, literacy, and numeracy for children. Children will develop school readiness skills and become ready for formal school by age 6. Furthermore, 1000 Anganwadi workers will gain better understanding of Early Childhood Education concepts and importance of foundational learning through trainings that will be provided as part of the “Learn. Play. Grow” program.

Educational content for the Anganwadi worker, children and caregivers will be developed which will be aligned with the state Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) curriculum framework and will cover whole child curriculum domains such as language and literacy, cognition, physical well-being, social and emotional wellbeing.  

Talking about this initiative, Gaurav Burman, Director, Burman Hospitality, Taco Bell’s Master Franchise Partner in India said, “I have had the honour of serving on Sesame Workshop India’s Advisory Board and have seen first-hand the amazing work they are doing in India. We at BHPL are delighted to make this contribution and hope it will be the start of a long-term partnership, whereby we can continue giving to help Sesame Workshop India grow their operations. At BHPL, we are passionate about childhood education and hope that we can continue to give to this cause.”

Sharing her thoughts on BHPL’s grant and support, Sonali Khan, Managing Trustee, Sesame Workshop India Trust said, “Amidst the pandemic, children have been severely impacted by the lack of access to education, opportunities to play, development and so much more. We are thankful to Burman Hospitality for believing in our mission and committing to support our Learn. Play. Grow program in Uttar Pradesh that will help 35,000 young children grow smarter, stronger and kinder.

Through the one-year period of the project from March 2022 – March 2023, regular monitoring will be carried out to assess the impact of the program on the capacities of the Anganwadi workers and learning levels of children.