1000 Days of Motherhood

Dear friends, 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 1000 Days of Motherhood initiative has been temporarily placed on hold. Our partners at Zambia's National Food and Nutrition Commission remain extremely keen to distribute additional Lifeplayer units, however, health restrictions and other priorities are delaying further implementation. Maternal health and childhood nutirition are more important than ever. One of the issues is that people listen to the Lifeplayers in communal groups, making social distancing more challenging. 

Although Zambia has had slightly more than 18,000 people test positive, no chances are being taken and health officials are focusing on COVID responses. Their death rate remains low at less than 1000 as well.  Precautions were taken early by the Ministry of Health and radio played a central role in the dissemination of accurate COVID information which was broadcast in the eight major local languages. 

We have no intention of closing down the project.  It will still be be ongoing once the situation in Zambia normalises again.  Our intention is to visit Zambia as soon as that is possible again to visit sites with Lifeplayer units .  We have been unable to do so this year due to health restricitons and also very limited flight options from South Africa.  The major carrier between Zambia and South Africa, South Africa Airways went bankrupt.  The only airline now flying between Johannesburg and Lusaka is the highly rated Rwandan Airways.  

Thank you for your support with this project and we will be in touch again in 2020. 

Yours sincerely, 

Kristine

Dear friends,

We are saddened to report that one of our long-standing projects in Zambia, 1000 Days of Motherhood,  is presently on hold.  Staff from our partners at the National Food and Nutrition are unable the distribute Lifeplayer units at this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is worsening. They are also unable to travel around the country as the initiative is located in deep rural areas.

It is our hope that in the next few months that we will have something concrete to report and that our team will be able again to visit Zambia and this wonderful project. 

With kind regards, 

Kristine Pearson

Dear friends, 

As we have noted in previous updates, the 1000 Days of Motherhood has been a great success to date. At least a further 1000 Lifeplayer units are needed to meet the demand.  Zambia is a huge country with more than half the population still living in rural areas, the need remains great.  

Although Zambia has only a few confirmed cases of the Corona Virus, the country is preparing.  Schools and many government offices have been closed. People are being asked to keep their distance and limit domestic travel.  If the virus takes hold in Zambia, it would be catastrophic for the country as their health system is woefully under-resourced.

We are continuing to raise funds to support rural mothers as the Lifeplayer units will be needed more than ever once this emergency passes. We are holding any funds raised until the units would be able to be distributed. 

Therefore, we are unable to provide an update on the project for this quarter. We are in touch with our partners at the National Food and Nutrition Commission who are responsible for implementing the 1000 Days of Motherhood initiative.  They will advise us as to when the project formally resumes with rural comunities.

Thank you sincerely for your continued support. 

The Bushes That Grow audio series helps to combat stunting and improve health outcomes in Zambia.  As national broadcasting fees are prohibitively expensive, except on a few community stations, our Lifeplayer MP3s have been successfully used to bring much-needed maternal and child health content to local mothers community groups.  The groups meet once a week when convenient for them and then have time afterwards to discuss the new learnings. 

Produced by the National Food and Nutrition Commission, there are two series of Bushes That Grow and in both they covers common misconceptions and “old wives’ tales”.   There are numerous misconceptions about maternal and child health and some of the biggest are around breastfeeding. 

These include: 

-       In hot weather babies should be given water to keep them from dehydrated

-       Babies should be given cow or goat’s milk (which is hard for babies to digest)

-       Babies should be given milk products (some of which contain sugar)

-       A teaspoon of sugar can be added to water or milk to give a baby more energy

A qualified nurse explains on Bushes That Grow that breastfeeding is one of the best investments in saving lives and improving the health of mothers and babies alike.  She notes that according to research only 40% of all babies under six months were being exclusively breastfed in Zambia.  This is way too low.  Babies should be breastfed for up to 24 months. 

Great strides have been made in Zambia since Bushes That Grow and other initiatives actively encourage breastfeeding.  Our Lifeplayer units support community based groups in deep rural areas across the country, especially in those areas with high rates of stunting.  And Zambia is large country, bigger than the state of Texas.

Please continue to support this great project that helps rural and often illiterate mothers to raise healthy children. Each Lifeplayer unit reaches about 30 mothers directly and mothers birth five children on average. 

Firstly, let me apologise for the tardiness of this update. We've been waiting for feedback from our local partner in Zambia, the National Food and Nutrition Commission (NFCC).

Their teams have been in the field and haven’t been in a position to report back to us. They work in rural areas so remote that villages can only be reached in off-road vehicles. And it may take a day or more just to get there.  The nutrition response team is speaking to mothers about the Bushes that Grow radio programme series, its effectiveness, limitations and challenges. They are also monitoring the value of our Lifeplayer MP3 units to reliably deliver the content. This is in addition to surveying how the information is impacting stunting and mother and child health during the critical first 1000 days. 

The NFCC had hoped they could respond with a formal update already, but they’ve informed us that they’re still in the field and the reports would not be ready to meet the GlobalGiving deadline.

What they do ask is can we please send more Lifeplayer units, as it’s the only way these rural mothers’ groups can listen as Bushes that Grow isn’t broadcast on radio due to the cost.

Stay tuned until next time! And thank you again for your support.