Sandton Mediclinic and Rise against Hunger partner to help young children

Sandton Mediclinic and Rise against Hunger have partnered to ensure that children at various early childhood development centres in Alexandra have adequate nutrition.

Brian Nell, the CEO of Rise against Hunger, said that they have worked with the clinic for several years when they have participated in meal packing events. They discussed the possibility of assisting with monitoring and evaluation regarding the health and wellness of the children and the clinic was immediately interested in getting involved.

Liezl Furlong, the patient experience manager at Sandton Mediclinic added that during one of the meal packing events they had the opportunity to visit four schools and distribute the meals. “We were looking for an opportunity for a long term relationship with these schools and hoping to find ways that we can contribute long term to make a difference in these kids’ lives.”

Sandton Mediclinic then offered their staff an opportunity to participate in visiting the crèches that Rise against Hunger works with to conduct basic measurements and evaluate the children. This data is then captured on Growth Charts for each child.

Nell explained that depending on the number of children at each of the centres the staff hope to visit about three centres a month.

“The cycle will then be repeated after a period of six months. Our target for this project will be around 18 ECD’s which is approximately reaching around 900 children.”

Rise against Hunger generally works with unregistered early childhood development centres and works to help build them up and eventually meet the requirements of the Department of Social Development. Some of the ways this is done include teacher training, improving classroom infrastructure and sanitation facilities and providing educational toys.

Furlong said that they plan to continue this partnership throughout the year and are interested in seeing how the programme can grow. Nell added that he hopes that once the project has gained momentum they will be able to expand it throughout Gauteng and into other provinces.

Nell concluded that they have seen really positive results from the teachers about the benefits of healthy meals and they believe that having monitoring and evaluation regarding the children’s’ health will also offer a substantial impact on the work they do.

Details: Rise against Hunger 011 872 2498.

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