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01 November 2024 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied
Dr Nomakhuwa Tabane
Dr Nomakhuwa Tabane is the Head of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of the Free State.

The first 1 000 days of a baby’s life, from conception to the age of two, constitute a critical period during which children’s brains form as many as 1 000 neural connections every second – a pace that will not be repeated in their lifetime.

These connections are the building blocks of every child’s future, which makes the role of a campaign like the First 1 000 Days vitally important. It highlights the importance of stimulation and learning from the earliest possible moments, good nutrition for expectant mothers, prevention of malnutrition of children, and early diagnosis of chronic, life-threatening illnesses and developmental disorders.

This is according to Dr Nomakhuwa Tabane, Head of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of the Free State (UFS). The campaign was promoted by Dr Tabane’s department in partnership with the Mother and Child Academic Hospital (MACAH) Foundation.  The annual campaign kicks off on 1 November each year.

“There are certain factors that can interfere with this process and result in irreversible damage to children’s brain development, poor growth, and compromised immunity. Those conditions include prematurity, ischaemic brain damage, and infections. These are also the top contributors to the neonatal mortality.

“In the one-month to 49-month-old period, the causes of mortality and morbidity that affect brain development and growth include respiratory illnesses like pneumonia, diarrhoeal diseases, and malnutrition,” says Dr Tabane. 

Aims of the campaign

The First 1 000 Days initiative promotes excellent mother, infant, and child healthcare by supporting community-based programmes that drive the message of the importance of the first 1 000 days of life to teenagers, young adults, healthcare workers, and the public. This initiative aims to bring about interventions that can address the Under-5 Mortality Rates (U5MR), including Neonatal Mortality Rates (NMR), Infant Mortality Rates (IMR), and Perinatal Mortality Rates (PMR).

“The campaign also aims to improve the growth and development of children in their first 1 000 days of life from conception until they are two years old. It also aims to improve expectant mothers’ health and prevent and decrease maternal mortality in the Free State, as well as to prevent unwanted pregnancies, focusing on decreasing teenage pregnancies.”

According to Dr Tabane, the 2020 South African UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNIGME) estimate for U5MR was 32 deaths per 1 000 live births, NMR of 11 per 1 000 live births, and infant mortality rate (IMR) of 26 per 1 000 live births as compared to the Medical Research Council (MRC) estimate of U5MR of 28 per 1 000 live births, NMR of 12 per 1 000 live births and IMR of 21 per 1 000 live births (15).

South Africa behind other BRICS countries

Based on the 2020 UNIGME report, says Dr Tabane, South Africa has achieved the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) goals of NMR and the U5MR. South Africa’s indicators were much better than the UNIGME and the MRC 2020 estimates, but it still falls behind other BRICS countries.

“In contrast to other BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), UNIGME reports that in the same reporting period of 2020, China’s U5MR was seven per 1 000 live births, Brazil's 15 per 1 000 live births, and Russia's five per 1 000 live births (16). In 2020, the South African national in-hospital neonatal mortality rate (NMR) based on DHIS data was 12,0 per 1 000 live births; the infant mortality rate (IMR) was 15.1 per 1 000 live births, and the under-5 mortality (U5 MR) rate was 16.9 per 1 000 live births, with differences amongst provinces,” says Dr Tabane.

The first 1 000 days campaign’s interventions include education to prevent illnesses and deaths and promote good health, growth, and development. While many training programmes on child survival strategies have been rolled out (e.g., MSSN, HBB, ETAT, AANC, ESMOE, and IMCI), in-service training still has significant gaps.

Other interventions include preventing unwanted and unplanned pregnancies, providing healthcare support for therapeutic and interventional care, strengthening the implementation of the existing strategies developed by the Department of Health to reduce Maternal and Child Mortalities, and monitoring and evaluating the interventions.

News Archive

UFS law researcher part of international project to produce human trafficking reference book
2017-03-17

Description: Human trafficking reference book Tags: Human trafficking reference book


Trafficking in Persons has been in the spotlight as an ever-growing crime around the world. Research being done in South Africa by various universities over the years has yielded results that are internationally recognised.

Part of this work has been done by Prof Beatri Kruger, Research Associate at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of the Free State (UFS), who has been involved in research that has created awareness around the world on various methods of human trafficking in Africa. She is currently working on co-authoring a chapter in the International Handbook on Human Trafficking to be published by Palgrave, the first of its kind and a major reference work in this field, with Marcel van der Watt, a lecturer at the University of South Africa (Unisa) Department of Police Practice. The reference book is a massive international project that will have more than 60 international contributors and will be published in 2018.

Contribution to international research
The chapter is titled: Breaking bondages: Methods to control victims, ‘Juju’ and human trafficking. It explores the methods used by Nigerian and other West African traffickers, namely “juju” rituals, to subdue their victims for sexual exploitation in various parts of the world. The chapter further charts various physical, financial and the psychological control mechanisms, essential in establishing an informed counter-trafficking global response.

The book and other research being done is a step in the right direction in further understanding specific practices, and can be used to augment international research, support the work of NGOs, law enforcement agencies and individuals who work with victims worldwide, to be able to understand the tools used by perpetrators, and to stop the crime from growing.

Prof Kruger said there were new opportunities at the research division of the UFS Centre for Human Rights to explore human rights violations that occur in human-trafficking scenarios, thus contributing towards more efficient strategies to combat this crime.

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