Thula Baba Project

I would develop a mobile phone mothers informational and advice service to serve the Mothers of newborns in the under-resourced and often violent ganglands of Cape Town. Using community knowledge and expert advice to develop small bite sized broadcast messages with an enhanced option to ask advice. Challenges are to make it data-lite/zero and feature-phone friendly.

My mother taught me to read and write before I started school. I had a definite advantage because she had the knowledge and the access to the resources. It is an advantage that I want to share. I founded Thula Baba Project (TBP) on the belief that mothers - when they have the knowledge and resources - can change the lives of their babies. I have a passion for small easy to implement changes (such as singing and talking to baby) that have impact on outcome. Nutrition, Health and safety are obviously crucial - early stimulation and attachment&bonding should not be ignored for the changes they can make to society. The dream is to change the lives of babies born in Cape Town, to break the cycles of poverty and violence by providing mothers with knowledge and tools so that their babies can achieve development milestones. We run 2 programmes: #EquippingMoms where we offer a graduation gift as an incentive for mothers to attend prenatal and childcare classes (±100 mothers/quarter); and #DressingBabies born during lockdown involves gifting emergency packs at clinics (±300 babies/month). The next step is to offer these moms some kind informational and advice service from their phones.

LITERACY

Anecdotally half the children entering grade 1 are not school-ready. Statistically (Child Gauge 2018) 15% of children in the Western Cape are repeating one of the first 3 grades. We are part of the Coalition for Quality Education in the Western Cape - developing programmes to increase literacy. The goal is for children in grade 3 to have the ability to read with understanding in both their home language and English. 

Mothers are taught to play, sing, talk and read with their babies - we provide books and ECD approved toys. 

VIOLENCE

Statistically 35-45% of children witness violence against their mothers. Men who have killed partners describe mothers who lacked the ability to provide love and care. Other studies have shown that women pregnant in toxic environments have babies who struggle to develop empathy unless they experience effective attachment and bonding. 

We provide a baby wrap and lotions - encouraging bonding through baby wearing and baby massage. 

The first 6 hours after birth have a significant impact on attachment&Bonding. Moms are taught what to expect at birth -  improving the birthing experience.

We provide care packs to destitute moms – reducing stress at birth..

What makes us unique is that we focus on Mothers making the difference. We run programmes designed to equip mothers with resources and importantly knowledge. 

Our programme is based Change-Theory. It is an incentive driven programme - enticing mothers to attend prenatal courses with the promise of a gift on completion of the entire course. Attendance is monitored through a "passport" - which also serves as a reminder of the key messages and lists numbers of where to reach for help.

Our planned mobile based programme will use the concepts of gaming and point earning to achieve the same incentive based enticement.

Midwives have reported a difference in their experience with the mothers during childbirth when mother have attended a course. They also report that these empowered mothers will often share their knowledge in the maternity wards making shifts with Thula Moms generally easier.

Mothers have sent us excited pictures of their success at baby wearing ... importantly this wearing is in the front where interaction between mom and baby is still possible.

Our oldest babies are just 3 years old - not yet old enough to enter the classroom and so our impact on literacy is not yet confirmed. We have had granny's coming to classes with their pregnant teenage daughters expressing a wish that they had known more and an excitement of how much they will enjoy playing and reading to their grandchildren. (more than half of SA's children live with their grannies)

We are looking to partner with one of the local academic institutions to do further research into the success of our programme (and how to tweak it) - we have collected a fair amount of information about the mothers.