By JESSICA FELDTMAN
A blanket, a rattle, a squeaky toy, a mirror and ball, and of course loads of colourful baby books…
All wrapped up in a locally designed Baby Treasure Box.
At present, 22 households have received a Baby Treasure Box – delivered by Kaylenne Rushin and Anthea Davis, who were trained as home visitors by a local NGO, the Lebone Centre.
The feedback from parents has been exceptionally heart-warming.
“The parents are crazy about the boxes, and the children are just as excited,” Rushin exclaimed.
Terry-Anne Scheepers is a young mother enrolled in the programme since she was pregnant with her daughter, Gracelynn. Scheepers displayed much delight for the ‘Baby Treasure Box’.
“The box has been helping a lot because she has been learning about colours and shapes from so young. Even though she can’t talk, I can see she wants to engage with me when she plays on the mat and when she has a book in front of her,” Scheepers said.
“As a new and young mother, I am grateful that this programme has helped me to bond with my baby.”
Amber Sias is another mother who has been a part of the programme since 2019. She also expressed much excitement for the baby treasure box that her daughter, Chloe, received.
“I was a bit confused when I got the box and didn’t know how it would help her. But when I opened the box, and the home visitors explained to me how to use it, and I saw how Chloe interacted with it, it made sense,” explained Sias.
Sias’s mother, Lorna Sias, also reiterated her daughter’s gratitude for the initiative. “I am very happy about this programme because it helps children a lot, and I can see that through my granddaughter (Chloe) as she is getting more advanced in her learning,” Lorna Sias said.
“That is what we want for the children, so if we can have more programmes like this in our communities, we will be very grateful for it.”
Both home visitors also shared how many young mothers are approaching them in their communities asking about books and ‘Baby Treasure Boxes’ for their children. “It’s becoming a thing,” said Rushin, in describing how reading with young children is taking off.
Lebone Centre literacy coordinator Cathy Gush said, “We want to influence the culture of reading in homes from a very young age. We started a programme to assist parents in stimulating their children at home, with the ‘Baby Treasure Box’ being one of these resources.
In 2020, Lebone structured a ‘pipeline’ programme which they plan to carry out for the next few years. The first stage in this pipeline is the ‘# EVERYBABYMATTERS’ project. This project focuses on educating parents and caregivers from Hooggenoeg, Vergenoeg, Sun City and Ghost Town about the importance of the First 1000 days whilst also showing them ways to stimulate their babies.
“Babies need books” is also the Lebone Centre’s slogan on the posters they designed for their early childhood intervention.
“Our purpose is to ultimately get the children who are a part of this community to read for meaning by the end of Grade 3,” explained Gush.
“But that process starts at birth, not only when they get to Grade 1. So we must create this pipeline of support that starts at birth and goes all the way up to age 9.”
The First 1000 days is a UNICEF concept which describes the critical window of opportunity for a child’s development. From conception to age three, children’s brains can form 1000 neural connections every second. This is a once-in-a-lifetime speed, and these connections form the building blocks of a child’s learning and development.
As stated by the Harvard Centre for the Developing Child, healthy development during the First 1000 days paves the way for “educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities and successful parenting of the next generation.”
Ultimately, the stimulation a child receives during their first 1000 days can significantly determine their future.
The idea for the ‘# EVERYBABYMATTERS’ project originated in 2013. The Lebone Centre had embarked on raising awareness about the First 1000 days and the dangers of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome at the local Middle Terrace clinic with pregnant women and new mothers.
But after being evaluated, the programme was said to be a light touch intervention, and Lebone director, Anneliese Maritz, explained how they then shifted to “link a clinic-based programme to a home-based programme”.
The Lebone Centre was able to have six staff members trained by the Hantam Education Trust to be Home Visitors. In 2019 utilized two of these to work on the pilot Home Visit/Clinic programme, dubbed ‘#EveryBabyMatters’, with funding from the HCI Foundation.
Cathy Gush explained how the initiative is split into two parts, with the first being a clinic workshop at the local clinic, followed by personalized home visits for those who sign up. “The clinic awareness workshop involves a 45-minute talk to raise awareness about the impact of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and explaining how the First 1000 days is vital for a child’s stimulation and care,” Gush said. She also added that the staff of the clinic had been very supportive of the project.
Kaylenne Rushin, one of the two trained home visitors and clinic workshop facilitators, expressed much passion for the initiative. “I always tell the parents and caregivers at the clinic that we’re not here to tell them what to do; we’re here to help,” Rushin said.
“When I received the training, my baby was one year and four months, and I assure them that the suggestions do work. That is why I always share my personal story because I saw how it helped my baby.”
After the clinic workshop, mothers are given an information booklet and a form to complete for those interested in having home visits. The home visits are the second part of the programme. The two home visitors make six visits to participants to provide more information about the baby’s different areas of development.
“Some of the areas we cover in the home visits include showing parents how to talk, play, sing and rhyme with their babies, and how to create homemade toys. We also teach them book-sharing techniques,” explained Anthea Davis, the other trained home visitor and clinic workshop facilitator.
Despite the success of the clinic workshops and home visits, there was still a desire to build on the initiative even more.
In 2020, Maritz discovered an article about the Finnish baby box. For the past 75 years, this box has provided new mothers with newborn baby resources and serves as a place for babies to sleep in.
“Instead of using a box for the baby to sleep in, we wanted to create one which links to reading and early stimulation,” Maritz explained.
Brain Garman, a senior lecturer in the Journalism Department at Rhodes University, volunteered to design a box for the initiative. Much research and deliberation went into the box’s design in terms of material, structure and which colour and shapes to uses.
Further refinement of the box included deciding on pictures and adding pockets for extra storage. “The idea with the pockets was that the parents can add their own stuff, their important cultural things, to the box,” Maritz said.
“We didn’t want it to seem like they could only add things that the Centre provides, but also for them to see that they and their children can add their things.”
“The purpose of the Baby Treasure Box was to have a box for families to store the baby’s resources that they receive from the home visits, and at the same time provide a mat for the baby to play on,” Gush said.
For many of the parents and caregivers from impoverished communities, access to resources is limited. Projects like #EVERYBABYMATTERS aim to support and show parents and caregivers how they can play a role in providing better opportunities for children’s development, starting from birth.
“Middle- and upper-middle-class children have generally received much stimulation by the time they go to school. Then they are ready to receive the more formal approaches to reading and writing at school. We want to show people that every child can have that stimulation and those building blocks in their early years,” explained Gush.
“It is not rocket science. We can have all children receive that stimulation before they go to school.”
At present, funding for the project ended in June 2021. But, due to the success of the Baby Treasure Box and the potential for national implementation, the HCI Foundation is currently seeking ways to fund the project.
The goal is to expand the ‘Baby Treasure Box’ numbers in Makhanda and eventually other provinces.
“We’ve got the momentum. People are excited and wanting to be a part of the programme. I hope we can capitalize on that and go further,” Gush said.
Given the unfortunate effect COVID-19 has had on the education sector, the ‘Baby Treasure Box’ serves as a beacon of hope for South African early childhood development. Rushin stated how she has seen the change amongst parents in communities and is adamant that ‘#EVERYBABYMATERS’ is a catalyst for significant transformation in children’s lives.
“I can see that it’s making a difference in this generation of children. I believe that wonderful change is coming.”
