First 1,000 Day Critical To Child’s Life, Development – UNICEF
By Murtala Muhammad
The United Nations Children Fund UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office conducts a three-day Media Dialogue in Gombe state, on First One Thousand Days for child survival and development.
The Media Dialogue is aimed at creating awareness for the media on the importance of first one thousand days to child survival, brain development and thriving.
The participants are Journalists who were drawn from broadcast, print and online platforms from four north eastern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Chief of UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Dr Tushar Rane said the first one thousand days of life are the days between conception and two years of child’s birth, describing it as critical period that underscored the survival of a child.
Dr Rane explained that the period presents an opportunity to lay solid foundations for the mother and child’s nutritional needs, brain development and attainment their full potential.
He charged the participants to report the right messages around maternal and child health with particular emphasis on the first one thousand days of child’s life.
The media dialogue had also examined and highlighted the peculiar threats and the extant implications to a healthy first one thousand days in the four out of five UNICEF Bauchi Field Office’s focus states.
In developing countries such as Nigeria, million of children do not access the basic elements required for a solid foundation that facilitate their development and thriving due to varying factors, despite the significance of the first one thousand days.
