First Lady’s visit to North Alego Ward Siaya County.
The Smart Start Siaya team led by the ECD Patron, First Lady Rosella Rasanga today sensitized residents of Komollo Sub Location, North Alego Ward on nurturing care for early childhood development during her ward visit.
The Nurturing care for early childhood development is a framework for helping children survive and thrive to transform their health and human potential into response to strong evidence and growing recognition because early years are critical for human development.
The five components of nurturing care are good health, adequate nutrition, safety & security, responsive care giving and opportunities for early learning and it is about children, their families and other caregivers, and the places where they interact.
First lady explained the importance of investing on human from early age “The parents should be the first teachers of their children; they need to be enlightened on matters of ECD”, she said.
She noted that the Governor is interested on ECD issues and she hoped for the involvement to the Members of County Assembly into ECD to bring agendas and bills that favor nutritional programs for better HealthCare in the county.
She emphasized on the importance of food security for the pregnant mothers and infants. She also urged the local administration to ensure the security of the young girls in and out of school to avoid the issue of early pregnancies which expose them to poverty which is another element in poor nutrition and general nurturing care move. She called for everyone to join the journey of the County of nurturing care excellence.
Nancy Juma the project Officer, gave an input on the male involvement in child’s upbringing urging everyone to abandon the beliefs of a man not being allowed to do some nurturing roles which are depicted by the community as taboos.
Nancy stated that with good care, and play, the child’s brain to develop optimally and no evident stunted growth.
Fathers were noted not interact with their children in the community and the worse of it all some children even grow without knowing their fathers, this weakens the child’s attachment to the dad, a man in the meeting highlighted.
Present were the area assistant chief, Area MCA, Ideo.org representatives and other administrators.
IDEO.org is the lead organization in designing campaign messages for the Smart Start Siaya /nurturing care campaign. In so doing, it is working with key stakeholders within the county to design a campaign that resonates with the aspirations of the residents in as far as nurturing care for early childhood development is concerned.
All of them were not left behind encouraging the residents to ensure they work hard to ensure proper nutrition for their kids.
The meeting ended with a gift of porridge flour to the caretakers. The Smart Start Siaya team plans to visit all the wards in siaya county with the good news of the behavior change and advocacy of the best practices on child’s development.
