First Thousand Days
We aim to increase family & community awareness, and offer information & support using the 'first 1000 days' as a platform to ensure that children not only survive but thrive.
What are the First Thousand Days (FTD)?
"The first 1000 days of life - between a woman's pregnancy & her child’s second birthday - is a unique period of opportunity when the foundations for optimum health & development across the lifespan are established.
The right nutrition & care during the 1000-day window influences not only whether the child will survive, but also his or her ability to grow, learn & rise out of poverty. As such, it contributes to society’s long-term health, stability & prosperity." - UNICEF SA
And the Nurturing Care Framework?
To enable a child to reach their full potential, UNICEF & the WHO advocate for these five interrelated & indivisible components of 'nurturing care'.
As Layita, we use these principles in both our Nurturing Futures ECD & First Thousand Days programmes. For more information, click here.
Our target audiences
Breastfeeding Mothers
Breastmilk is the best thing anyone - especially families in rural, lower-income settings - can give a baby: not only does it save families money & reduce the risk of malnutrition & diarrhoea, it also contributes to bonding & responsive caregiving. Every day, our full-time MotherMentor checks in with all mothers in the local hospital's maternity, neonates & paediatric wards. She supports mothers who have just given birth to understand the benefits of & establish breastfeeding, and for those who have stopped breastfeeding, to start a series of feeding protocols to achieve relactation. She also provides antenatal care (ANC) to pregnant women & information on developmental milestones to families at the hospital & clinics.
Adolescent Girls & Young Women (AGYW)
Early child-bearing – particularly by teenagers & young women who have not completed school – has a great impact on the education outcomes of both the mother & child while being associated with poorer child health & nutritional outcomes. To mitigate these & create a safe space for teen mothers to ask questions & prepare for motherhood, we run a special support programme & curriculum for young mothers during their pregnancy - both at Madwaleni Hospital & at two highschools in the area. We look forward to building on these school partnerships & offering more comprehensive sexual & reproductive health support.
Healthcare Workers
Our partnership with the Department of Health enables us to work closely with different health cadres & to join on outreach visits to remote clinics. Since 2022, we've built relationships with Community Health Workers (CHWs) at six rural clinics, providing training & resources on various topics part of the first thousand days of a child's life. Some of these include navigating the Road to Health booklet, good breastfeeding practices & developmental milestones. In 2024, we look forward to extending & deepening this training to especially nursing staff at Madwaleni Hospital & the surrounding clinics.
Community Members
The most sustainable & impactful way to see our vision come to life is if cultural narratives & norms about feeding practices & helping children develop, start reflecting it. To fast-track this, we target specific groups of community members & equip them to become advocates of First Thousand Days (FTD) principles & create very local, small support structures. Our Village-Based MotherMentors are breastfeeding mothers who've been encouraged to invite other moms into their homes to support each other in breastfeeding & motherhood while also tackling five key aspects of the FTD. So too we look forward to helping ECD practitioners become advocates & 'screeners' of child health.