OPINION | Grants for moms-to-be can help avert child stunting

Three out of 10 children in SA are stunted, meaning they don’t fully develop physically and cognitively due to poor nutrition, especially in the first 1,000 days of their lives. The first 1,000 days of a child's life are the most important; children need to eat nutritious foods to ensure that their bodies and brains grow and develop.

To win the fight against child stunting, action and campaigns similar to what civil society did to push for the rollout of ARVs and ensure the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmissions is required. This was one of the suggestions that emerged at the Grow Great anti-stunting campaign held in Boksburg last week Thursday.

Breaking the cycle of stunting requires a multifaceted approach that addresses child nutrition, healthcare, education, economic empowerment and monitoring that involves various stakeholders. Human rights and social justice activist Mark Heywood emphasised that the government should prioritise child stunting and make it a national crisis to mobilise the political will to address this issue.

He stressed that there are viable solutions available, yet action is still lacking and stunting remains a big problem. “We must build a campaign similar to the successful initiatives for preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission, and invite everyone to join us in launching a ‘Union Against Hunger’ to tackle both immediate needs and long-term reforms to our food system,” Heywood said.

Some panellists agreed that a comprehensive action plan can help ensure that children in SA have the opportunity to grow, thrive and reach their full potential.

Professor Ute Feucht from the University of Pretoria's Research Centre for Maternal, Fetal, Newborn and Child Healthcare Strategies said: “Just because a child has more weight at birth or during early years that doesn’t necessarily mean they are healthy.” She said it is vital for children to get proper nutrition to help grow their brains as sometimes the body might develop while cognitive development is compromised. Feucht said mothers should be educated on the importance of eating right during pregnancy.

Another concerning issue raised at the summit related to how child support grants are not enough to cover buying nutritional food for children who are child grant recipients. As a result, children eat merely to get their stomachs full rather than getting nutritional food that will assist in brain and physical development.

It is difficult to buy these nutritional foods because of the high food prices which makes vital nutritional food unaffordable for many, especially those from poor backgrounds. Participants were singing from the same hymn book when they stressed that the government should introduce maternity grants for vulnerable pregnant women. The maternity support grant will play a key role in helping a mother eat nutritional food that will help with the development of the child before birth and prevent stunting.

The DG Murray Trust CEO David Harrison stressed the urgent need for the government to support and address child stunting and restore child support grants to poverty levels.

He highlighted the importance of maternal and child health, food access and affordability, calling for action on micronutrient fortification and food waste reduction.

Numerous parents are not aware of stunting; hence they do not prioritise good, nutritional food. One of the programmes that Grow Great has is community workers called Grow Great Champions. These workers go to communities to teach about the importance of eating right during pregnancy and giving the child nutritional food once they are over six months old. It is however unfortunate that they do have not adequate resources to fulfil their duties. That is why we need the government to intervene and assist.

*Maziya is head of communications at Grow Great Campaign