Grow Great Campaign under way to fight scourge of child stunting

ONE in five South African children under the age of 5 suffer from stunting.

This is according to the recent South African Demographic and Health Survey that found that stunted children suffer delayed growth and their brains don’t develop as they should.

Thus the Grow Great Campaign was officially launched earlier this month in order to fight stunting. This multi-funder-initiated campaign aims to confront the hidden challenge of chronic under-nutrition in South Africa and will mobilise the nation to achieve zero-stunting by 2030.

Given her commitment to maternal and child health and her advocacy for early childhood development, Dr Tshepo Motsepe, First Lady of South Africa, said in her keynote address at the media launch: “If we are to achieve zero stunting by 2030 we must make better use of our community health care workers. These are the people who are the closest to households and they develop a rapport with and are trusted by the people in the community.”

Motsepe said the intervention of community health care workers (CHWs) make a significant impact on childhood nutrition, especially in the child’s first three years.

“Nutrition is one of the most important factors that we need to address in the first days of a child’s life. It is extremely critical to their growth,” she said.

Motsepe said she hoped the Grow Great Campaign would take hold in all parts and at all levels of society. “It is an initiative that requires the participation of South Africans who live in abundance and South Africans who live in need. This is an initiative that embraces all South Africans – black and white, urban and rural and female and male.”

She added that the campaign needed people to talk about it everywhere – from classrooms and playgrounds to stokvels and taverns.

“We need to talk about it in all venues where people meet. We must stunt stunting, and in that way we will ensure that the Grow Great Campaign will grow great itself and become a social movement that will transform our society,” said Motsepe.

Stunted children on average perform worse at school than their non-stunted counterparts, are more likely to be unemployed as adults, are at higher risk of getting chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension and are vulnerable to being trapped in inter-generational cycles of poverty.

Dr Kopano Matlwa Mabaso, executive director of the Grow Great Campaign, said South Africa’s stunting levels were extremely high.

“They are far higher than would be expected of an upper middle income country like ours, and even higher than many other poorer developing countries. Grow Great seeks to bring South Africa closer to a future where no child is unjustly denied the opportunity to reach their full potential.”

Over 250 of the Grow Great campaign billboards have gone up in towns and cities in the country. This will be followed by public service announcements on stunting, exclusive breast-feeding and on healthy complementary feeding with the special focus on eggs in six languages across 12 radio stations reaching an estimated 25 million South Africans.

According to Matlwa Mabaso, the campaign will include high-power public media and face-to-face programmes throughout the country, drawing on strategies shown to work in other countries. These will include:

• A low-cost mom and baby class franchise to support parents (Flourish).

• A resource hub for community health workers to support children.

• Mobilisation of community and family support for breastfeeding.

• Promotion of eggs as an important part of infant food.

• The use of data and stories to mobilise policy-makers and the public.

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