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The Rotary Club of Addis Ababa Central Mella District 9212 in partnership with Rotary Club of Hobart, district 9830, Tasmania aims to improve the nutritional status, health, and early childhood development of children under five in marginalized urban-poor communities with the vision of improving their chances to become healthy and socially skilled citizens while also solving one of the most constraining obstacles to women's economic empowerment which is the lack of affordable child care services.
Its ambition is to pilot a sustainable and scalable model of a unique integrated service that will offer equal opportunities for all children and women.
We plan to address the lack of knowledge on children's nutrition, health, and development; the lack of access to nutritious and balanced meals; the lack of access to child-focused quality health services; the lack of sufficient income in such households; the lack of exposure to stimulating developmental activities and the lack of affordable child care services. Through a multi-layer approach from the household level, community leaders, local authorities, and the general public, this project's ambition is to pilot a sustainable and scalable model of an integrated service that will offer equal opportunities for all children and women regardless of their socioeconomic status.
The specific objectives of the project are:
1- To create a sustainable and integrated children's center that will be composed of a health wing, a child care wing, and a training area. The center is expected to receive over 90,000 visits from children under five and their parents annually and will enable the direct or indirect implementation of all the domains of nurturing care to children: health, nutrition, security and safety, responsive care, as well as early stimulation and learning.
2- To conduct awareness creation and advocacy on nutrition and early childhood development among 100 local decision-makers, 50 community leaders, 200 social workers, and millions of 60+ NGOs' beneficiaries, radio listeners, and social media users.
3- To enable the use of affordable and nutritious foods by low-income communities in a sustainable manner by enabling women in low-income communities to increase their income through Income Generation activities on one hand; by increasing the production capacity and scale up the distribution of nutritious snacks for small children by using a network of women in low-income communities on the other hand.
Three groups will receive a direct and immediate benefit from the project:
- Children under 5 years old because they will benefit from an adequate health care service dedicated to young children and from the series of activities conducted to invest in their early childhood development
- The capacity of the health facility will be enhanced, staff members and outreach programs workers of AA city administration will also benefit from the service
- Mothers and caregivers of children under five because they will benefit from the childcare service and the training program that is provided in the one-stop center
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