Return to flip book view

RCP Impact Report September 2020

Page 1

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0IN UKWEGA WARD,RURAL TANZANIA

Page 2

Akili ni mali– Knowledgeis wealth.SWAHILIPROVERB

Page 3

On average, all children enrolled for at least 18 months improved from being nearly severely stunted (-2.62 SD) to being not stunted (-1.75 SD). On average, stunted children enrolled for at least 18 months improved from being severely stunted (-4.08 SD) to being not stunted (-1.86 SD). REMARKABLE RESULTS:After the first two years of Global Volunteers' Reaching Children's Potential (RCP) Demonstration Program in Tanzania (July 2017 through July 2019), children showed statistically significant reductions in stunting.Stunting decreased by 7 percentage points (from 37.4% to 30%) in children enrolled in the program for at least 18 months - a 20% reduction.RCP IMPACT REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SEPTEMBER 202052017201720192019Of all children who were stunted when first enrolled, 62% were not stunted after 18 months.*Of all children who were severely stunted when first enrolled, 39% were not stunted after 18 months.*2017*This is especially important because the severity of stunting normally increases substantially as children get older, escalating in these villages from 23% at three months old to 62% at 24 months.2019Data analysis by Mindy Lull, Ph. D., Dana Cohan, Pharm.D., and Courtney Dudla, Pharm.D. Candidate, St. John Fisher College Wegmans School of Pharmacy, in process of publication201770%30%201780%202020%2017201930%37%reduction

Page 4

Childhood stunting is rooted in poverty. It severely impairs cognition, adversely affects the ability to learn and earn, and perpetuates generational poverty. In Tanzania, stunting affects nearly 40% of rural children, permanently shattering their future. Stunted children struggle to learn and experience serious physical ailments throughout life. Stunting is wholly preventable. Children who have sufficient food and nutrition and are protected from infectious disease develop normally. They are not stunted. They benefit from enhanced cognition, better health, and a substantially greater ability to learn and earn. They have a greater capability to contribute to society.STUNTING4

Page 5

3On the top of a mountain and at the end of the road, parents in remote Tanzanian villages accomplished what on the surface seemed impossible. They reduced stunting in their children by 7 percentage points in 18 months. As a comparison, it took 15 years (2005-2020) to achieve a 7 percent drop in all of Africa. How did they do this? Can it be replicated? Is it scalable? It’s all about the parents. Together, they embraced Global Volunteers’ Reaching Children’s Potential (RCP) Demonstration Program, where they gained the knowledge, tools, and support they needed to confidently change their behavior, and ensure their children’s health and growth. The RCP Program invests in children’s and mothers' nutrition, health, and education focusing on the first 1,000 days of life to address the root causes of stunting. All program components are implemented and directed by local people with the catalytic assistance and support of local staff and short-term volunteers. Parents want to improve their children’s lives and volunteers want to help them. This makes the RCP Program both replicable and scalable.THE POWER OF PARENTS

Page 6

Childhood stunting is a “silent tragedy”affecting families all over the world. And, whileit’s seldom covered on broadcast or print news, it’sas serious as any major problem facing the worldtoday. This is the issue the Reaching Children’sPotential Program directly addresses.6

Page 7

The first 1,000 days of life –conception through the second birthday – are the foundation of children’s health, growth, and neuro-development. This brief window determines every child's future.7

Page 8

OVERVIEW AND SCOPE8School and Household Gardens Child NutritionMicronutrient Supplementation Improved StovesThe RCP Program is a child-focused, parent-driven, family-centered, and community-led comprehensive approach that begins with pregnancy, continues through the 18th birthday, and focuses on the first 1,000 days. This program offers parents the tools to deliver the 12 essential services prescribed by UN agencies in the Essential Package. Global Volunteers organized these services into three major categories – eradicating Hunger, improving Health, and enhancing Cognition. Hunger and Health directly support Cognition.Eradicate Hunger1. 2. 3. 4.Improve Health5. Health, Nutrition, and Hygiene Education6. Systematic Deworming7. HIV and AIDS Education8. Malaria and Dengue Fever PreventionEnhance Congnition9. General Education10. Promoting Girls’ Education11. Potable Water and Sanitary Latrines12. Psychosocial SupportRCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020

Page 9

Parents work hand-in-hand with local staff and short-term volunteers through educational workshops, regular home visits, access to a modern community-based health clinic, packaged nutritious meals, supplemental micronutrients, and a host of relevant food production and health-related household technologies. This combination of services addresses the whole child through the 18th birthday by providing parents knowledge, tools, and support. The RCP demonstration provides proof of concept for a comprehensive community-based program that addresses the multi-generational cycle of poverty by eliminating stunting. Poverty substantially limits food, nutrition, and protection from disease for children, all of which cause stunting. Stunting results in reduced intellectual capacity and ill health. Reduced intellectual capacity significantly lowers economic productivity. Lower economic activity prolongs poverty. Eliminate stunting. Dramatically reduce poverty.9RCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020

Page 10

Short-term volunteer professionals, working through Global Volunteers’ RCP Program, provide the knowledge, technology, and encouragement parents need to improve their children’s future.10

Page 11

11Maternal & Child Health Clinic OperationsThe Ipalamwa General Health Clinic serves 10 communities in the Ukwega, Mlafu, and Kising’a wards in Kilolo district. Focus of care concentrates on children’s and women’s health and wellness, and includes general and preventative medicine.Nutrition ProgramTwo prepackaged nutritious meals and micronutrient supplements are provided daily to pregnant women, mothers, their babies, and school-age children. To promote food self-sufficiency, ongoing nutrition education and food producing technologies and training are offered to all RCP families.Parents Educational WorkshopsVolunteer professionals transfer health, hygiene, nutrition, and child-rearing knowledge to parents through interactive workshops focusing on the “how” to help families navigate and maximize the first 1,000 days and beyond. The goals are to explain why certain behaviors and technologies are important for their young children and demonstrate ways to adopt and apply them.Home VisitsRCP staff and volunteer professionals conduct regular home visits to reinforce knowledge learned during workshops, help families adopt new household technologies, and offer parents psychosocial support.Life-Enhancing TechnologiesHousehold handwashing stations, container gardens, fuel-efficient vented cookstoves, chicken coops, bed nets, and rainwater harvesting systems improve quality of life and help control infectious disease. All RCP families currently have access to household handwashing stations, and many have container gardens. As funding permits, all other technologies will be added.Women's Co-opsVillage cooperatives produce and market a variety of handmade and homegrown/raised products to generate income and increase women's access to enterprise ownership. RCP directly contributes to 10 United Nations SDGs and supports all others.RCP IMPACT REPORT COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH SEPTEMBER 2020

Page 12

12Parents the world over wantwhat is best for their children.When they know what to do tokeep their children healthy, haveaccess to relevant technology,and are supported in theirefforts to apply the knowledgeand embrace the technology,their children are not stunted.When educated, those childrenwill realize their full potentialand the entire world will benefit.

Page 13

THE POWER OF LOCAL LEADERS13RCP is conducted in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT). For more than 30 years, Global Volunteers, a non-sectarian INGO, and the ELCT have worked together in facilitating and catalyzing human and economic development in the Iringa region. In many Tanzanian communities, faith-based organizations play a major role in daily life. The Lutheran Bishop and other denominations' pastors encourage local leaders to invite Global Volunteers to conduct the RCP Program in their villages. Local people must always be in charge of community development projects because they are the only ones who can ensure lasting effect. The Tanzania RCP Program functions under the leadership of the Ward Executive Officer, in cooperation with the District Commissioner, and at the behest of village leaders and parents. It is the parents who do the “heavy lifting.” They must acquire the knowledge, modify behavior, and embrace new technologies. They are the ones who change their children’s lives for the better.RCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020From left to right: CCM District Chairperson Killian Myenzi, District Commissioner Asia Abdala, Bishop Dr. Owdenburg Mdegella, Joseph Kakunda, MP, and Dr. Benjamin Makafu.

Page 14

14COMMUNITY TESTIMONIALSZakina's storyI have changed a lot in terms of how I raise my children. The workshops that we are given have been very helpful. I always learn something new and they help us understand in detail the truth about a lot of things. For example, I have learned that singing can help a baby’s brain to grow and think bigger. Since I attended that workshop, I have been singing to Winner and playing with her. Sometimes she even does things I didn’t expect her to do at her age. I have realized that I have made a lot of mistakes in raising my previous children, but I’m glad that I have come to correct my mistakes through raising Winner in a different way. Also, the workshop about STDs opened my eyes. I’m so interested in the program because it teaches us not only about the children’s but also parents’ health. Home visits are really important too. I like home visits because we share different things with our caregivers and they always remind us of what we should be doing as parents to our children. I really love everything from the program including workshops and home visits. This program is really an advantage for the community."ZAKINAKIHWELE, RCP PROGRAM MEMBER

Page 15

Since we started using the handwashing station, my family has never suffered from diarrhea. I’m also grateful that my child has never gotten sick from diarrhea since the day she was born. The handwashing station has been very helpful to keep us healthy."TUMPOKEEKIKOTI, RCP PROGRAM MEMBERI am growing spinach. I hope garden boxes will be very helpful because we will not be going out to get vegetables. In that matter, I will be getting vegetables every day and throughout the year since they are very important in our bodies as we have learned. I appreciate the help that this program has given to our children."SIFA KIFYASI, RCP PROGRAM MEMBER15The program has added value to my life because there were so many important things I didn’t know before. Now my life is easier with this information."SHARONKAYWANGA, RCP PROGRAM MEMBERRCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020

Page 16

16One volunteer sitting with 50 women; one volunteer sitting with a community and a local person around; one volunteer for 10 days – that brings a lot of change. You throw the stone at the middle of the well, and it replicates around the society."BISHOP DR. OWDENBURG MDEGELLA, ELCTRCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020

Page 17

THE POWER OF VOLUNTEERS17Short-term volunteers are a renewable resource that, together with locally empowered people, catalyze long-lasting change. Parents want to improve the health and well-being of their children; however, too often they don't have the necessary knowledge to do so. If they have the knowledge but lack the means to apply it, frustration overcomes momentum. When parents learn the importance of good nutrition, they must also have the means available to provide their children a balanced diet. This is where short-term volunteers come in. Volunteer professionals transfer relevant knowledge to parents through workshops and home visits. They also help families increase vegetable, chicken, and egg production, provide household hand-washing stations, and help build improved cooking stoves. Health volunteers offer patient care, assist with deliveries, and perform pre- and post-natal checkups at Global Volunteers' clinic. And, business professionals help women start village cooperatives and offer advice on marketing, production, and financial management. Other volunteers teach in the schools, conduct English language camps, serve school meals, work in the greenhouse, and help repair and maintain community buildings. Public policy is rightly viewed from 30,000 feet because it must envision the big picture. Short-term volunteers take policy to ground zero – to the one-foot level where crops are planted, health care is delivered, and children are taught.RCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020

Page 18

Global Volunteers partners and collaborateswith institutions that want to enrich the lives oftheir students, members, and employees bymaking a difference in the lives of poor childrenand their families in developing communities.18

Page 19

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPSCommunity Partners who invite us, identify their needs, offer leadership, work hand-in-hand with volunteers, embrace new knowledge and technologies, and adopt habits for change. Foundations who provide funding and materials to help ensure every child can reach their potential. Academic institutions, corporations, faith-based organizations, and professional associations who offer knowledge, technologies ,and opportunities for their members, employees, or students to volunteer. Individual volunteers who serve in the field, invite others to join them, and financially support ongoing efforts.The RCP Program is successful because of its many contributing components.Our Partnership Team consists of: Each step of the way, no matter what, I walked away with the belief ofjust how necessary the work Rise Against Hunger and GlobalVolunteers is, not just for Tanzania, but the world. And, the way theproject is set up, you can’t help but want to support it.SEAN SUTHERLAND, GLOBAL VOLUNTEER19RCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020

Page 20

3Eliminating stuntingcan break the cycle ofpoverty – forever!When stunting iseliminated, and childrenreceive continuededucational support,each can reach theirpotential and becomecontributing members ofsociety. Everyonebenefits!22

Page 21

REPLICABLE AND SCALABLEThe Tanzania RCP demonstration was initiated in Ipalamwa village in 2017, following Global Volunteers' pilot program in St. Lucia. In 2018, we replicated the program in Lulindi and Mkalanga villages, and in 2019, started in neighboring Ukwega and Makungu. We are now conducting the RCP Program in these five villages, with the goal to add five additional villages in 2021 when we will serve 1,200 families. To scale the RCP Program requires funding. Startup costs for all construction, medical equipment, household technologies, and vehicles to serve 1,200 families (approximately 10 villages) totals about $3.8 million USD. The annual cost is $1.2 million, or $1,000 for each family of seven ($143 per person). A reasonable source for the $1,000 per family annual funding is individual donors contributing $84 per month. Many volunteers already contribute $25 to $400 monthly. The major challenge is the $3.8 million startup. But the return on this investment is enormous, and will pay for itself multiple times over.Global Volunteers is looking for partners who want to invest in the future of our planet by investing in children so that all may become contributing members of society and the generational cycle of poverty can finally end.21RCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020

Page 22

Stunting prevention begins with applied parental knowledge about healthy pregnancies, child development, food production, disease prevention, and the value of education.24

Page 23

The Reaching Children's Potential Program was developed from Global Volunteers’ Essential Services Prospectus published in 2011 (based on the UN’s Essential Package), and a pilot project initiated in the impoverished fishing village of Anse La Raye, St. Lucia in 2012. The pilot built upon a government effort – the Roving Caregivers Program – which provided mothers support to enhance early child development primarily through home visits. Understanding the relationship between nutrition, health, and cognitive development, Global Volunteers engaged short-term volunteers to expand the program through parent educational workshops, household container gardens, and a mothers’ club. In 2014, the government passed the management of the Roving Caregivers Program to Global Volunteers.Renamed Reaching Children’s Potential (RCP), Global Volunteers accepted a request to replicate the program in Tanzania. Based on a 30-year partnership with the ELCT and at the invitation of Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete, Global Volunteers agreed to help address Tanzania’s significant stunting problem by applying the lessons learned from the St. Lucia pilot. The Tanzania RCP Demonstration Program started in July 2017.23RCP IMPACT REPORT HISTORY OF RCP SEPTEMBER 2020From left to right: Global Volunteers co-founder and CEO Bud Philbrook, Bishop Dr. Owdenburg Mdegella, and Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete.

Page 24

30The Tanzania RCP Demonstration Program is led by local people. Global Volunteers follows the guidelines required of rigorous research, including collecting appropriate baseline data, protecting individuals’ privacy, comparing villages that are part of the demonstration with similar villages that are not yet offered the interventions, and producing statistically significant results.

Page 25

GLOBAL VOLUNTEERSVolunteers:1. Go only where invited.2. Do only what asked to do.3. Serve under the direction of local leaders.4. Work hand-in-hand with local people.5. Support sustainable community-based projects.Volunteers are “servant-learners,” working with and learning from local people.Featured on CNN, CBS Early Show, NBC Today Show, ABC Evening News, The Oprah Winfrey Show, People Magazine, Newsweek, Woman’s Day, The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, and China Daily.In consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC. Focused on community-driven development.37,000 short-term volunteersserving on long-termdevelopment projects.Founded in 1984 as a private, nonprofit, human and economic developmentINGO based in St. Paul, MN – USA.To create, nurture, and sustain the well-being of the world’s children and theircommunity, that they might realize thefull promise of their human potential.To wage peace and promote justicethrough mutual internationalunderstanding.25RCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020200+ communities in 36countries on six continents.GOALMISSIONGUIDING PRINCIPLES

Page 26

26Service program contributions, individual donors, donor-advised funds, and foundations support Global Volunteers' RCP Program. They help pay for nutritious meals for pregnant women and mothers, micronutrients for infants and toddlers, medicines for the clinic, textbooks and school meals for students, household technologies, local and international staff, and so much more.

Page 27

RCP FUNDINGGuideStar awarded Global Volunteers Platinum Status, their highest level of recognition, signifying a superior level of transparency. In its first years, RCP was funded by a generous family foundation, as well as many individual donors, donor-advised funds, and hundreds of volunteers’ service program contributions. Rise Against Hunger, a US-based nonprofit, supplies prepackaged meals and micronutrient supplements for RCP families and school children.Revenue Expenses27RCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020-

Page 28

28In Africa, stunting is increasing. The World Health Organization estimates 29% of all of children in Africa are stunted, and the number of stunted children is increasing. In rural Tanzania, up to 40% are stunted.

Page 29

The World Bank estimates that 32% of children in Tanzania are stunted, and in rural areas, the stunting rate is as high as 40%. This positions Tanzania’s stunting rate in the top 15% of all countries worldwide.WHY RCP? The RCP Program can significantly decrease stunting in months vs. decades. RCP is a child-focused, parent-driven, family-centered, and community-led comprehensive approach. All components are implemented and directed by local people with the assistance and support of local staff and short-term volunteers. It is replicable and scalable.WHY NOW?Stunting robs children of their future, steals trillions from the world economy, and is totally preventable. However, it must be addressed before a child’s second birthday. There is no time to waste. Every child deserves the opportunity to reach their potential.WHY TANZANIA? 29RCP IMPACT REPORT SEPTEMBER 2020

Page 30

20Children have the undeniable right to reach their full potential. You can help make the difference. With funding from individuals and foundations, Global Volunteers will expand the RCP Program throughout Tanzania, across Africa, and around the globe – wherever we are invited.

Page 31

Stunting is tragic on a personal level, but that tragedy touches us all. With one out of four of the world’s children stunted, we are squandering 25% of our potential intellectual capital. We cannot afford to do that given all the challenges facing our world today. Generational poverty, climate change, food insecurity, pandemics, war, gender and racial inequality, and economic recessions require all the brainpower we can muster now and well into the future. UN agencies and other qualified organizations have completed the research necessary to eliminate stunting. Parents want to improve their children’s lives. With relevant knowledge, tools, support, and catalytic volunteer assistance, they can ensure their children reach their God-given potential. That is good for families, every country, and the planet. The results reported herein were achieved before all the RCP Program components and household technologies were in place. When parents have access to additional knowledge and all the technologies, the stunting rate will decrease substantially more. Together, we can eliminate stunting. Global Volunteers knows how to do this. Parents want to do this. Everyone can help. Every person has a role to play. We invite you to join us in this vital effort.MESSAGE FROM THE CEOBurnham Philbrook, JDCo-Founder and CEO31

Page 32