Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative”

Due to me not hearing from my international contacts, I got explore Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website. The first thing I saw was that 200 million children do not reach their full potential developmentally by the age of 5. This is largely due to impoverished communities throughout the country. However, the Center on the Developing Child works globally to build a broader movement to achieve breakthrough outcomes for children around the world. They center promotes innovation in countries such as  Brazil, Canada, Mexico and as well as across a broader international platform called Saving Brains.

Saving Brains is partnership led by Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Brains seeks to improve outcomes for children living in poverty through interventions that nurture and protect early brain development in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.  This organization/partnership has been quite intriguing and I just kept following links until I got to the official website of Saving Brains. I see that they have quite a few innovations that geared towards early brain and child development.

What stuck out to me was their Kangaroo Mother Care innovation. Kangaroo Mother Care improves survival, and potentially neurodevelopment, in preterm and low birth weight infants in hospital settings but its coverage remains low and the impact on brain development has not been comprehensively evaluated. This just had me to think that throughout this program it has been repeated how important that child/mother bond is and how it affects so many things before the child is even born. This is a prevalent issue in India where this innovation is being presented and tested. India has high low-birth weight with their infants which I discussed in a previous post. With this initiative they expect a 3 point increase in motor and mental developmental scores of low birth weight, an improvement in breastfeeding rates by 20%, early care seeking and reduced morbidity by 10% and community workers trained in counseling for KMC and breastfeeding support. I encourage you all to check out the website.

Kangaroo Mother Care

Resources 

http://www.savingbrainsinnovation.net/projects/0725-03/#innovation-summary

http://www.savingbrainsinnovation.net/projects/0725-03/

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children's initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work/