1000 Days of Motherhood

Recently I returned from the far reaches of eastern Zambia which borders Malawi. The Eastern Province is now home to the largest number of our Lifeplayers in Zambia.

Our Lifeplayer MP3s are being integrated into three initiatives – a widespread agricultural project of COMACO where cooperative farmer groups to listen to Farm Talk; a pre-school and parenting project of the Ministry of Education; and they’re also now being used by CARE International Zambia.

Up to 20% of children in the province suffer from under-nutrition. The ones most impacted are under the age of five. In response, CARE have established nutrition centers to help reduce the high rates of stunting, especially in younger children. Central to CARE’s strategy of addressing the first 1000 critical days of motherhood is the Bushes That Grow audio programme which is loaded on to our Lifeplayers. The content is produced by the National Food and Nutrition Commission of the Ministry of Health.

In the Eastern Province alone, CARE have established 15 nutrition centers in the Lundazi district and Chadiza has seven. The initiative started out in 71 villages and has now doubled to 142, and is continuing to expand given its popularity.

On Friday mornings, women’s listener groups in each of the villages comprised of about 20 mothers, gather to listen and discuss Bushes That Grow.  Groups have a leader or facilitator and use a radio listening guide created in the local language, Nyanja, to support them. The women say that listening in a group is better than trying to listen on their own when because they may not own a radio or have fresh batteries. Like elsewhere we’ve seen in Zambia, women enjoy learning together and discussing what they’ve learned and how they’ll use the new knowledge. Women also appreciate being able to listen again to points they may not have understood on the Lifeplayer’s playback feature.

These rural women are mainly farmers and a significant number have not attended school. Rates of illiteracy are high, which makes audio learning the most apprioriate and cost-effective way in which to reach them.   And just like all the other womens’ groups we’ve met, they want to learn more – like English and financial literacy skills.

Many of the groups are now getting too large and more Lifeplayers are needed. We would greatly appreciate your continued support in helping to provide them.