Malaysia: Naungan Kasih
The Naungan Kasih Hybrid Parenting Programme (Naungan Kasih) was designed with and for parents and caregivers of children aged 2 to 6. It is a family strengthening programme that combines digital tools, in-person sessions, and remote parenting support to provide parents with the skills to promote healthy development, learning, and wellbeing for their children. By empowering parents to create loving and healthy home environments, the programme helps parents build positive parent-child relationships and manage difficult child behaviour, while preparing their children for success in school.
With funding from The Human Safety Net and the LEGO Foundation, Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) is supporting government KEMAS preschools and private community centres in Malaysia to scale the Naungan Kasih programme, reaching over 280,000 caregivers, and benefitting more than 300,000 children by the end of 2027.
This project is being implemented in collaboration with the Community Development Department (KEMAS) in the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Malaysian National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) in the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, Malaysian Association of Social Workers (MASW), University of Oxford, UNICEF Malaysia, IDEMS International, and Parenting for Lifelong Health.
The Problem
In Malaysia, a 2016 National Health and Morbidity Survey found that 71% of parents reported using violent discipline with their children (Ministry of Health Malaysia, 2016). The same survey found that only 25% of Malaysian children receive early learning stimulation at home. Nurturing parenting plays a critical role in improving these outcomes, but delivering in-person parenting programmes remains a challenge, particularly in low-resource settings. Strengthening access to scalable, cost-effective parenting solutions is essential to strengthening early learning at home and improving child and family outcomes.
The Solution
Given the challenges faced by families in Malaysia, the Naungan Kasih programme was developed with preschool teachers, parenting experts, and parents, to equip parents with the skills needed to support healthy child development, learning, and wellbeing through a light-touch delivery model. Parents attend an in-person session to learn the basic principles of positive parenting and then join NKText, a chatbot that delivers daily parenting lessons through WhatsApp or Telegram.Throughout their learning journey, parents are supported through an online community of caregivers and their programme facilitator.
NKText delivers structured content through eight parenting goals: (1) improve my relationship with my child, (2) prepare my child for success in school, (3) understand child development, (4) give my child structure, (5) supporting positive behaviour, (6) keep my child safe & healthy; (7) have a healthy relationship with my spouse, and (8) build a family budget and save money. NKText also includes additional components, including learning-through-play activities and developmental assessment tools, to help parents better understand and respond to their children’s needs.
Each daily skill includes short messages, quizzes, comics, and videos, and most importantly, simple activities for parents to try at home with their child—like 5 minutes of daily one-on-one time with your child. These are things parents can do consistently, even on a busy schedule.
Quality delivery of Naungan Kasih at scale is supported by FaciNK, a dedicated app developed to support programme facilitators as they deliver in-person and remote support. FaciNK streamlines programme delivery and simplifies online support for parents. Through the app, facilitators can efficiently deliver weekly content and access essential data to monitor and support parental engagement in the programme.
4,155
caregivers reached
67%
parents rated the
programme ”very helpful”
Impact
The Naungan Kasih programme was independently evaluated by researchers from the Universiti Putra Malaysia and University of Oxford.
A 2023-24 study conducted with 151 families in the state of Negeri Sembilan and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur showed promising findings for the potential of a low-cost hybrid-digital parenting programme to improve positive parenting and promote child development.
Positive effects were found for reduced parenting stress, child physical and emotional abuse, child behaviour problems, and increased child numeracy skills.
“
Before this, we lacked knowledge and skills, and had never been exposed to them. From the programme, we can learn a lot, learn how to teach our child, what patience means in practice—all of which are taught in the programme
- Father of a 5-year-old, Malaysia
Our Partners
Scaling Strategy
PLH is working in close collaboration with government institutions and local partners to expand the reach of the Naungan Kasih programme and ensure that every parent across Malaysia has access to its positive parenting support. We are committed to ensuring the programme’s long-term sustainability by transitioning implementation to local ownership through several key strategies:
Building the technological infrastructure to support sustainable programme delivery.
Expanding the coverage of facilitator training across Malaysia.
Establishing a dedicated organisation to lead the training of trainers.
“
Honestly, before this, 5 minutes felt like 5 hours to me, and I don’t have that 5 hours. But Now, there's awareness. I cried because, before this, I didn't even have time for him.”
- Mother of a 5-year-old, Malaysia