Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

Talking Stickers - A Scalable, Low-Cost, and Play-Based Early Learning Intervention in Low-Resource Settings

Attollo’s Talking Stickers (TS) provide quality, play-based and measurable early learning for children (0-6). TS TALK, SING and READ in any language or dialect, without internet, making it an intervention feasible to scale. TS is a low-cost solution that can be used by caregivers regardless of their literacy level, to help children reach their full cognitive potential and get them ready for primary school. TS deliver culturally/locally accepted curricula for use at home as well as in centre-based settings. At home, TS encourage and support rich caregiver-child interactions.

Putting Children First: Safe, Sustainable Families in Urban and Rural Communities in Tajikistan

This seed funding will enable us to demonstrate that replacing institutional care in Tajikistan with an innovative set of interventions (family support, early child development services through community-based outreach and alternative family care including foster care) has a positive effect on child brain development in the first 1000 days. The project will enhance practical skills of health workers and parents to stimulate child development and support existing institutions to build a multidisciplinary ‘Team Around the Child’.

Addressing Childhood Stunting in Lesotho

In Lesotho, 33% of all children never reach their true cognitive potential because they face chronic nutritional deficits in their first 1000 days, a critical time when brains and bodies are growing rapidly. Due to its lasting impact on the immune system, stunting is an underlying cause in about 45% of all child deaths. The national response in Lesotho has been fragmented and invests overly in school-age children, many of whom already have irreversible damage from stunting. Stunting rates have declined by only 1% a year over the last 10 years, leaving thousands of children affected.

1000 Day Nutrient Monitor

Kenya is in a malnutrition crisis. Over 1/4 of the children <5 years in Kenya are stunted due to lack of nutrients, impairing their physical growth and brain development [1]. The first 1000 days—from the start of a woman’s pregnancy until her child’s 2nd birthday—comprise the critical window for adequate nutrition in a child’s life [2]. Monitoring nutrient levels in the mother and child during this window is essential, but most Kenyan mothers lack access to regular nutrition screening.

Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health