1000 Days of Motherhood

Project Report | Dec 16, 2019
1000 Days of Motherhood dispels "old wives' tales"

By Amy de Raedt | Media coordinator

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.

Permalink

Sep 17, 2019
An Interim Update from Zambia

By Kristine Pearson | CEO and Founder

Jun 12, 2019
1000 Days Scaling up in Zambia

By Karen Vollaire | Marketing and Communications Coordinator

The Glory Listener Group in Western Zambia

We are delighted to advise you that the 1000 Days of Motherhood initiative in Zambia now is scaling up to include deep rural districts that were not included in the first phase of the programme. Fifteen disticts particpated in three of the country’s ten provinces in phase 1. Zambia is divided into provinces, districts and wards and is roughly the size of Texas. Our partner, the National Food and Nutrition Commission (NFNC) selected those districts where 40% or more of children under five were stunted.

We thought it might be helpful to give a bit of backgound information as to why Zambia has some of the highest rates of stunting in the world and why the1000 Days is truly a critical initiative.

Zambia’s population is young. The median age is 16 with life expectancy for women at 54 and for men 51. Nearly 60% live in rural areas. Life in rural areas is hard. There are fewer schools and health facilities and infrastructure is less developed. Women are less likely to be educated and rates of illiteracy amongst women can be as high as 80%. The median age for first-time mothers is 19. Rural women have an average of six children each. Children are seen as a symbol of prestige.

The majority of rural women are subsistence farmers who grow mainly maize (corn). Variety is lacking in the family diet. This creates a perfect storm for stunting and under-nutrition. Micronutrient and Vitamiin A deficiencies are common, as is anaemia.

The 1000 Days of Motherhood initiative is a series of audio programmes that covers all aspects of maternal and child health and nutrition. Listener groups of mothers (and some fathers) meet weekly to listen to programmes and discuss what they’ve learned. The Bushes that Grow audio series is produced in seven local languages and in English.

NFNC are ambitiously scaling up and hoping for 300 more Lifeplayer units, according to the project lead Eustina Besa. Please continue supporting this wonderful, high-impact project.

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.