The 9th Annual Regional Conference on Early Childhood Development 2019 was held in Vietnam by the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC) and The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, with the cooperation of organizations including: East Asia and Pacific Ocean UNICEF, Asia and Pacific Ocean UNESCO (in charge of education), Save the Children; Plan International, International Labour Organization (ILO), Aide et Action, Care for Children, ChildFund Alliance, LEGO Foundation, Generali Insurance Company, The Human Safety Network, and China Development Research Foundation và Global Health Advocacy Incubator.
Early on 3/12/2019, Research and Training Centre for Community Development (RTCCD), the Provincial Department of Health of Ha Nam together with local authority were warmly welcomed and introduced to over 40 ARNEC delegates from various countries about the innovation model of “The Learning Clubs on the first 1000 days”. This project has been conducted in Ha Nam province for 18 months through an executive team ‘so-called facilitator’ involving multi-sectoral staff such as health worker, kindergarten teacher, and women union staff. Through this facilitator, fortnight classes were provided to pregnant women and their families (including their husbands and children’s grandparents), and follow-up these families until children 0-24 months after birth.
During the site verification, delegates observed how the club operated, and highly evaluated the quality of project documents (e.g., video clips, posters and family books). Delegates also agreed with the way the facilitation team provided information to parents and grandparents through the videos along with justifications of WHY should do good practice, instructing parents how to directly interact with children, and reminding parents of the key take-home messages according to WHO and UNICEF instructions listed in the “Care for Child Development” document.
The delegation visited the innovation clubs in 2 communes (Thuy Loi and Ngoc Son), and directly discussed local authorities and deputy director of the provincial Department of Health. The delegates also spent time talking with parents and grandparents who showed their excitement to see children’s changes in interacting with parents and grandparents through handmade toys. Delegates from Nepal and Myanmar highly appreciated the documents of the project material package and thought it may be suitable for their own nations’ culture. As a result, they expressed keen interest to transfer the document and implication of this innovation to their countries.
RTCCD is grateful for the financial support of Grand Challenges Canada and Australia National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for creating the model. We also thank the MOLISA and the MoH Vietnam for recommending the Learning Club innovation to the ARNECT delegation. We are also thankful to Monash University, Melbourne University, Burnet Institute, UNICEF, WHO, Vietnam Ministry of Health Care, and the Green Pine Clinic for providing technical support to the project.
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The session topic: breastfeeding and preparation for weaning food. Families (mothers, fathers, or grandparents) attending the club was provided with evidence-based knowledge by video clip, together with Q&A with health worker.
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All participating members were actively engaged in Q&A section.
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Parents and grandparents learned how to deal with chocking during weaning.
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Not only local parents wants to practice on manikins, the ARNEC delegates were also eager to take part in practice.
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Finally, the members of the club “The first 1000 new-born days” and ARNEC delegations took photos together to remember this meaningful event.
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