New book reports in depth on Brazil’s Criança Feliz programme

Brazil’s Criança Feliz home visiting programme is one of the world’s largest. Supported by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, communications agency Cross Content today publish an in-depth look at how it works. The 212-page work, in Portuguese, is titled Da ciência à prática – Os programas de apoio ao desenvolvimento infantil na América Latina (From science to practice – Programmes supporting child development in Latin America).

Cross Content’s team travelled hundreds of miles across Brazil, visiting 13 states in varied regions of the country, and accompanied home visitors on dozens of visits, as well as interviewing managers, supervisors, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents and others. The result is a rich and diverse account of the programme’s implementation.

The publication also includes a comprehensive survey of other early childhood development initiatives in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, including Educa a Tu Hijo (Cuba), Chile Crece Contigo (Chile), Uruguay Crece Contigo (Uruguay), and Cuna Más (Peru). We hope it will deepen readers’ understanding of how to operate a programme like Criança Feliz at scale.

N.B. The publication is only available in Portuguese.