Promoting Child Health and Development from Conception to Age Five

The project “Promoting Child Health and Development from Conception to Age Five aims to address critical gaps in maternal and child health.

It focuses on reducing child mortality and morbidity, particularly from malnutrition and childhood illnesses while promoting growth and early learning for children under five.

With limited access to adequate maternal and childcare services in rural communities, the project provides a unique opportunity to improve outcomes through increased immunization rates, enhanced antenatal and postnatal care adherence, and support for exclusive breastfeeding.

Also, it targets male involvement in child health and development, addressing a significant cultural gap.

By integrating field workers into clinics and fostering community partnerships, the project ensures a sustainable impact.

This initiative fills a pressing need for early health interventions, helping children achieve healthy growth and developmental milestones and reducing the strain on provincial hospitals.

Objectives of the project

1. To increase the percentage of healthy children during the first 1000 days till the age of five.
2. To facilitate behaviour changes in practising good nutrition among mothers and caregivers to increase the number of mothers and children who have good dietary diversity
3. To establish partnerships for child and maternal health advocacy.
4. To increase the percentage of children who are growing according to child growth and development milestones.

Project activities

1. Training field workers (FWs) in maternal and child health and nutrition. The trained FWs conduct home visits for maternal and child health outreach, engage with mothers at the clinics for breastfeeding support, and engage with ECD centres for early developmental milestones monitoring.  
2. Recruiting and supporting pregnant moms and children through home visits.
3. Engaging and encouraging men to participate in maternal and child health.
4. Supporting clinic committees to establish and maintain relationships with the communities.
5. Facilitating the provision of child health and growth monitoring services to ECD centers.
6. Providing nutrition education sessions at home visits (for caregivers, mothers, breastfeeding and pregnant women).
7. Establishing breastfeeding support groups for mothers at the clinics.
8. Providing support to households to access social services.
9. Providing mothers/caregivers with education on healthy eating, monitoring, and collecting feedback on food behaviours.
10. Monitoring child development milestones at ECD centers.
11. Educating caregivers to stimulate their children.