The 1,000 days from pregnancy to age two offer a crucial window of opportunity to create brighter, healthier futures.

How well or how poorly mothers and children are nourished and cared for during this time has a profound impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn and thrive. This is because the first 1,000 days are when a child’s brain begins to grow and develop and when the foundations for their lifelong health are built. Poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days can cause irreversible damage to a child’s growing brain, affecting her ability to do well in school and earn a good living—and making it harder for a child and her family to rise out of poverty. Countries that fail to invest in the well-being of women and children in the first 1,000 days lose billions of dollars to lower economic productivity and higher health costs. Several of the world’s leading economists have called for greater investments in the nutrition and well-being of mothers, babies, and toddlers as a way to create brighter and more prosperous futures for all.

At the Jika Uluntu Preschool and Community Centre we offer children with ECD education and nutrition but the parents in our community cannot afford to send their children to the preschool. For a small donation of R3000, you can give a child the opportunity to go to school and receive two full meals a day providing them with the nutrition they need to grow and thrive.