Grow Great campaign launches in Sandton
SANDTON – The Grow Great campaign seeks to eradicate growth stunting by 2030.
The first lady of South Africa, Dr Tshepo Motsepe helped launch the Grow Great campaign in Sandton which aims to eradicate stunting of growth by 2030.
The Grow Great campaign hopes to mobilise policy makers and inspire communities and health care workers to ensure that mothers and their children have access to all the necessary support.
Motsepe said, “The Grow Great campaign we are launching today is one that seeks to mobilise South Africans from all walks of life to work together and speak with one voice towards the achievement of zero-stunting by 2030.”
She highlighted that an estimated 27 per cent of children under the age of five are affected by stunting and those children will likely suffer from lifelong cognitive defects. “They are also susceptible to chronic diseases as adults and susceptible to becoming conduits of poverty from one generation to the next.”
Stunting can be caused by chronic nutritional deprivation, repeated infections and poor psychosocial stimulation. “The campaign tells us that stunting is not an inevitable natural phenomenon divinely predestined for some children on their paths of development. The campaign tells us stunting is merely a disapproving reaction and response of nature to the uneven, unequal and unjust socio-economic conditions under which millions of our compatriots strive to survive.”
Motsepe added that she hopes the campaign will help to engrave a sense of responsibility among the nation to empower women who are vulnerable, in terms of knowledge and economic status.
“We have to wage a relentless war against ignorance; we have to teach South Africans, female and male, about the basics of pregnancy and the nutritional needs of the foetus; and we have to practically assert our people’s right to a clean environment that is not a breeding ground for infectious diseases.”
She concluded, “We must stunt stunting wherever we can and when we do, we will ensure that Grow Great will indeed grow great itself and become a social movement that will transform our society.”
Details: info@growgreat.co.za
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