On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health launched a national campaign running through June 22 to raise awareness of the importance of the first thousand days of a child’s life, under the slogan, “The First Thousand Days: The Foundation of Our Children’s Future.”
The initiative entails a collaboration with the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) to raise awareness on the importance of this stage in a child’s life for his or her physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development, which most crucially stretches from the start of pregnancy until the age of two.
The campaign also seeks to encourage best practices in nutrition, such as consuming a healthy, balanced diet during pregnancy; breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months of the child’s life; the gradual introduction of food diversification from the sixth month onwards, and continued breastfeeding until the child reaches the age of two, continues the same source, noting that the aim is to improve the knowledge of pregnant and breastfeeding women and their families about these benefits.
This public awareness campaign aligns with international recommendations, and the importance of this age group as a decisive and influential stage in the successive stages of a child’s life.
Early prioritization of healthy nutrition and quality health care–as well as early and appropriate education and psychosocial stimulation during the first thousand days of a child’s life–will undoubtedly pay dividends with respect to the child’s future health, physical and intellectual development, and socioemotional growth.
If any of these parameters fails to occur in an optimum progression, the child may experience a delay in overall, age-appropriate development.
To this end, the Ministry, in cooperation with its partners, has prepared a set of audiovisual and printed materials and articles related to the subject, made available to the public and to various stakeholders via the Sehati portal (www.sehati.gov.ma) and on social media networks related to the portal, the press release concluded.