I have always loved children.
I enrolled to become a primary school teacher when I was
fresh out of high school but then I won a sports scholarship to the Australian
Institute of Sport for playing squash for 2 years and as I grew older my
priorities changed. For those 2 years on
scholarship I did work in a child care centre part time as I also trained as an
elite athlete during that time. I have
been lucky enough to have been included in the growing up of my beautiful
god-daughters Zoe and Tess. I have been
a part of their lives right from the ½ hour after each of them was born. Yes I love kids.
I have always enjoyed the older children and envisaged
that I would be working with the 4-8 years olds’ when I finally did find some
work here in Kenya. I enjoy the
interaction with that age, and a little selfishly I like the attention I got
back from them, to hear their unjudged thoughts, their purity and not yet
tainted by the world that we live in, well certainly Western children. Africa children I guess are a little more ‘hardened’
to life at an earlier age and then being an orphan or coming from a crime or very
poor family also changes that dynamic and thinking. For me to work with the older children I
would have to pay for a taxi (Steven) to take me to the children’s orphanage
and it was going to cost me 23AUD each way, and for a volunteer post, I was and
am not in a position to pay those costs, so it is a little by circumstance that
I find myself at the Halfway House with the babies. But as things always happen for a reason I
was talking to Katie about it and she mentioned that the first 1000 days of a baby’s
life is like a blue print for the rest of their life. It made me sit back, take stock and I think
working with the babies seems even more rewarding than I ever thought possible and
when you put into those kinds of terms I am having a little to do with setting
these kids on to a good path for when they get older. Who would have thought that holding a 4 week
old baby would have such an impact on the rest of its whole life?
So why are the first 1,000 days so important? The 1,000 days between a woman’s pregnancy
and her child’s 2nd birthday offer a unique window of opportunity to shape
healthier and more prosperous futures. The right nutrition during this 1,000
day window can have a profound impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn,
and rise out of poverty. It can also shape a society’s long-term health,
stability and prosperity. Today, under nutrition
is still a leading cause of death of young children throughout the world. For
infants and children under the age of two, the consequences of under nutrition
are particularly severe, often irreversible, and reach far into the
future.
During pregnancy, under nutrition can have a devastating
impact on the healthy growth and development of a child. Babies who are
malnourished in the womb have a higher risk of dying in infancy and are more
likely to face lifelong cognitive and physical deficits and chronic health
problems. For children under the age of
two, under nutrition can be life-threatening. It can weaken a child’s immune
system and make him or her more susceptible to dying from common illnesses such
as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria.
In 1,000 days, you can change the future
By focusing on improving nutrition for mothers and
children in the 1,000 day window, we can help ensure a child can live a healthy
and productive life. Investing in better nutrition in the 1,000 day window can
also help families, communities and countries break the cycle of poverty. Evidence shows that the right nutrition during the 1,000
day window can:
Save more than one million lives each year;
Significantly reduce the human and economic burden of
diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS;
Reduce the risk for developing various non-communicable
diseases such as diabetes, and other chronic conditions later in life;
Improve an individual’s educational achievement and
earning potential
Increase a country’s GDP by at least 2-3 percent
annually.
As a result, leading scientists, economists and health
experts agree that improving nutrition during the critical 1,000 day window is
one of the best investments we can make to achieve lasting progress in
global health and development. Solutions
to improve nutrition in the 1,000 day window are readily available,
affordable and cost-effective.
They include:
Ensuring that mothers and young children get the
necessary vitamins and minerals they need;
Promoting good nutritional practices, including
breastfeeding and appropriate, healthy foods for infants
Treating malnourished children with special, therapeutic
foods.
Every year a new generation of children is condemned to a
life in which they fail to thrive – never reaching their full physical,
intellectual or economic potential. These children are stunted –
their bodies and brains irreversibly damaged by the ravages of
malnutrition. This damage occurs very early in a child’s life, often
before he or she is even born. Today, there are an estimated 170 million
stunted children throughout the world. They are victims of chronic
malnutrition - the grinding result of a diet that does not provide them
with the nourishment they require to develop and thrive.
Unfortunately, malnutrition is as persistent as it is
pervasive. Research has shown that malnutrition early in life has serious lifelong consequences and can even be passed down
from one generation to the next. Stunted children have lower IQs, perform
more poorly at school, are more susceptible to illness and earn less in their
jobs as adults. This in turn makes it harder for individuals to work
their way out of poverty and give their children the nutrition they need
in order to grow into healthy, prosperous adults.
This is why it is critical to stop malnutrition before it
starts.
Over the past few years, renowned scientists, researchers and economic experts have implored the world to focus more of
its attention and resources on what happens during the critical 1,000 days
between a woman’s pregnancy and her child’s 2nd birthday. It is in these
1,000 days that the right nutrition serves as the foundational building block
for the healthy development of children’s brains and bodies and consequently,
the healthy development of societies free of chronic hunger and poverty.
Under nutrition has been characterized as one of the
world’s most serious but least addressed problems. The human and economic costs
of under nutrition are enormous, falling hardest on women, children and the
poor. Under nutrition claims the lives
of 3.5M young children each year, yet it is almost entirely preventable.
Within the 1,000 day window from pregnancy to the age of two, the cognitive and physical damage
caused by under nutrition is particularly severe and often irreversible. This has profound consequences not
only for the child’s future but also for the long-term health and development
of families, communities and societies.
What is under nutrition?
Under nutrition is a serious condition in which the body
does not get the nutrients it needs to sustain healthy growth and
development. It arises when there is inadequate consumption, poor
absorption or an excessive loss of nutrients. Under nutrition is a form of
malnutrition and sometimes the two terms are used interchangeably.
What causes under nutrition?
Food: Not enough food and not enough diverse, nutritious
food.
Care: Poor maternal care and child care practices due to
a lack of knowledge about healthy diets and infant care on the part of mothers
and other caregivers in the family.
Health: Lack of health services, clean water and
sanitation.
In countries where gender inequality is great, there can
be high rates of under nutrition as female members of a household will ‘eat
least and last.’ Fundamentally, poverty is at the root of under nutrition.
Very poor people are generally unable to afford the foods, education or health
care they need to nourish themselves or their children.
What’s at stake?
Children who do not get adequate nutrition during the
1,000 days between their mother’s pregnancy and their second birthday can
suffer from stunted physical and cognitive development. Impaired
cognitive function means a child can have a diminished capacity to learn,
leading to lower educational performance and ultimately, lower economic
productivity. This in turn can hinder a nation’s economic development.
Evidence shows that in countries where childhood under nutrition is pervasive,
the loss to GDP can be as high as 2 to 3 percent, not including the indirect
costs of malnutrition such as health care and lost wages due to illness. Under nutrition early in life increases the
risk that illnesses become fatal and is also now known to contribute to
non-communicable diseases later in life—diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular
diseases and cancers. Undernourished women are more likely to give birth to low
birth-weight babies, contributing to a multigenerational cycle of under nutrition.
So in some small way, feeding these babies at The Nest,
nurturing them and giving them love while their mothers are unable to care for
them, I hope that I am helping in those first 1,000 days to set them up for a
much more rewarding life and giving them more physical, intellectual and economic
potential. It sounds very deep, but this
is Africa and this is what they have to tackle every day. It is part of their existence, they are born
into it and if we can help in some small way, it is not only for the
individual, but the family, the community and finally a country.
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