Stunting is a measurement of a child’s physical and mental growth and development, which indicates their future health and potential. Childhood stunting is a “silent tragedy” affecting families all over the world today. And, while it’s seldom covered on broadcast and print news, it’s as serious as any major issue facing the world today. This is the issue the Reaching Children’s Potential Program (RCP) directly addresses, and how short-term volunteers are making a long-term difference.
When stunting is eliminated, and children receive continued educational support, each can reach their potential and become contributing members to their society. Each child who escapes the grips of stunting unleashes valuable human resources that improve their own lives as well as their community, country and the world. Everyone benefits. Eliminating stunting can break the cycle of poverty – forever!
Stunting is a straightforward metric. It is defined as a height that is more than two standard deviations below the norm.5 Simply put, stunting is being too short for one’s age. But it is much more serious than being short. There are devastating consequences.
Health, Developmental & Economic
Health, Developmental & Economic
Stunting is caused by a complex array of factors, but in summary, it is the result of insufficient food, nutrition and protection from disease during the first 1000 days from conception through the second birthday – and inadequate parental education.
Read more about the causes of stunting
WHO identifies the myriad of interrelated issues that cause stunting.
The global trend in stunting is decreasing, but not fast enough – in 2015, 159 million children under five were stunted.7 (That’s half the total population of the US.) But in Africa, where 32% of all of children are stunted, the number of stunted children is increasing.8 And in rural Tanzania, it’s estimated that nearly 50 percent of all children are stunted.
Stunting can be prevented! And local people are making it happen.
At the invitation of community leaders, Global Volunteers engages short-term (1 to 3 weeks or longer) volunteers to help parents and community partners deliver The 12 Essential Services. These services are delivered through village-based Reaching Children’s Potential (RCP) programs. RCP provides families and communities the knowledge, technology and encouragement needed to combat stunting and ensure children can realize their full potential.12 RCP programs are child-focused, comprehensive, holistic efforts beginning with pregnancy and continuing through the 18th birthday.
Everyone is needed; everyone can make a difference. You can help with:
Eradicating HUNGER
Improving HEALTH
Enhancing COGNITION
Read more about The Essential Services
We’ve arranged the 12 Essential Services – extracted from the UN’s “The Essential Package – in three categories.
Eradicating HUNGER
Improving HEALTH
Enhancing COGNITION
The 12 Essential Services are interdependent – inextricably interrelated: the effectiveness of one depends upon the delivery of the others. The greatest probability of success comes from a comprehensive strategy that embraces all of the essential services. Eradicating hunger and improving health are foundational to enhancing cognition.
Volunteer professionals conduct regular interactive workshops at the village RCP Center. Topics focus on food, nutrition, infectious disease mental health and education. Volunteers teach workshops on:
Global Volunteers directs this knowledge transfer through culturally appropriate curriculum, which volunteers use and adapt based on their experience and expertise.
Applying new knowledge often requires parents/caregivers to change some behaviors and have access to necessary resources. Behavior change is facilitated by weekly visits with each RCP family conducted by Global Volunteers local staff and volunteers.
The objectives of the weekly visits are to:
Global Volunteers constructed a general clinic in Ipalamwa to provide primary care for between 16,000 and 20,000 people with a focus on maternal and child health care. Staffed by two physicians, two nurse-midwives, a lab technician, pharmacist and support staff, the Ipalamwa General Clinic (IGC) has two examination rooms, a delivery room, a 4-bed maternity ward, a 4- bed inpatient ward, a lab and a pharmacy. Nearly every health care professional can be engaged at this facility. The Mental Wellness Initiative was launched in 2021 to integrate mental health interventions into the primary care system. Mental health assessments, therapy and education is conducted by volunteers at home visits, group counseling sessions and the RCP Center.
Volunteers:
Some villages have preschools and primary schools, while others also have secondary schools. Educators from across the spectrum improve the education of students and teachers in the classroom, tutoring one-on-one or during English language camps. The latter is a great opportunity for high school students to participate in Global Volunteers SAT (Students As Teachers) program.
Volunteers:
Every village served benefits from volunteers who can wield a paintbrush, pound a hammer, plant a garden, or construct a latrine.
Volunteers:
Volunteers always work under the direction of local leaders on projects determined important by the community. Everyone is needed. Everyone can be engaged. Everyone can make a difference!
Volunteers also provide things that are either scarce or too expensive for local people to buy such as:
Volunteers are also asked to provide monthly financial support ($25 per month or more; students $10 per month) for the village in which they serve to help cover fortified porridge for pregnant women, micronutrients for toddlers, medicines and disposable gloves for the health clinic, and text books for students.
There is neither sufficient financial resources, political will, nor paid professional expertise available to meet the needs of every child, or the hundreds of millions of vulnerable children.
Read more about the role of volunteers
Volunteers:
With three decades’ experience engaging 34, 000 volunteers on six continents in 34 countries, Global Volunteers has proven the efficacy of short-term volunteers. For example, when we started working in St. Lucia in 2012, the Anse-la-Raye primary school was ranked 70th out of 89 schools on the island. Five years and several hundred volunteers later, this school ranks 9th in the country. We do not take credit for this remarkable achievement; it was the students, teachers and parents who did all the difficult work. However, this example indicates the type of positive affect short-term volunteers can offer a community. Further, the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs evaluated Global Volunteers St. Lucia RCP program and reported the program was highly valued by the local participants and identified garden boxes and parent meetings/workshops as the most popular components.13
The United Nations concurs in recognizing the importance and constructive engagement of volunteers in development policies and programs.14 The UN reports that, “volunteerism (is) an essential component for the sustainable, equitable progress of communities and nations, ” and is crucial to human development. 15 Moreover, in the absence of volunteers, it is not possible to get all the necessary work accomplished. Volunteers are the missing resource; there simply are not enough government or private sector resources to achieve what needs to be done. Global Volunteers know how to effectively engage volunteers. That is why we are taking the lead on eliminating stunting and unleashing untapped human potential.
We have started this program in rural Tanzania. Taking our learnings from five years of work in St. Lucia, and in cooperation with our longtime partner, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT-IRD), Global Volunteers is in the early stages of conducting RCP programs in 200 villages in the Iringa Region of Tanzania. We will demonstrate that stunting can be eliminated with the intervention of short-term volunteers working under the direction of local leaders, and hand-in-hand with parents and caregivers. When this demonstration is successful, we will encourage other NGOs to work with us as we expand the program worldwide.
Nearly one million Americans volunteer internationally every year, most for two to four weeks.16 With sufficient funding, we can recruit 18, 000 volunteers annually to serve 200 villages during the initial phase of the Tanzania demonstration, increasing from 100 volunteers in the first year. Because the Tanzania RCP Demonstration Program enables volunteers and donors to directly and dramatically change the arc of the life of a child and the face of the planet, we expect widespread participation.
The number of stunted children continues to increase in Africa. Furthermore, it is estimated that 40 to 50 percent of rural Tanzanian children are stunted.17 Showing the effectiveness of the RCP program in an area where stunting is most prevalent will encourage others to adopt this model in communities worldwide.
Global Volunteers has been invited by the ELCT-IRD, our partner in Tanzania for 30+ years, to conduct RCP programs in the Iringa Region. In addition, the Tanzanian government has encouraged us to move forward on this effort, and village leaders are very supportive.
Global Volunteers and the ELCT-IRD have successfully collaborated on numerous projects in the Iringa Region. Both parties have developed a deep admiration and respect for the other. The ELCT-IRD goals are to eradicate ignorance, disease and poverty. Together, our organizations strive to help children reach their potential. Eliminating stunting and supporting children throughout their development achieve our shared goals.
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After three decades of catalyzing community development, Global Volunteers has confirmed that any successful “outsider” contribution requires local people be represented by a trusted and respected local organization. The ELCT-IRD has a physical presence in most villages, cooperates with other faith-based organizations – Christians and Muslims – in this primarily Christian region of Tanzania, and has the trust and respect of virtually all villagers. This trusted status is a critical component – the piece that makes entrée into communities and homes, and therefore the RCP program, possible.
In the Tanzania RCP program, the ELCT-IRD selects participating villages, motivates family involvement, interacts with government agencies, and ensures the culture is honored. Global Volunteers provides executive leadership, ensures compliance with the RCP model, constructs RCP centers, manages finances, and recruits, prepares, manages and engages volunteers. In addition, the ELCT-IRD will continue to conduct well-baby clinics, and run health centers, preschools, primary and secondary schools and a university. Global Volunteers will continue to serve all these venues.
Ipalamwa is a beautiful rural village situated in the highlands about a two-hour drive from Iringa in south central Tanzania, with a population of about 2500. It is one of seven economically impoverished, but spiritually and culturally rich communities where Global Volunteers serves. Living in a rural East African village is both immensely exhilarating and enormously rewarding, but it can be challenging. We have removed most challenges by constructing our own Reaching Children’s Potential Center in Ipalamwa, which includes a very comfortable guesthouse, modern kitchen and dining room, health clinic, staff lodging and a water purification system.
Volunteers fly to Dar es Salaam and then take a 1 1/2 hour flight to Iringa on Auric Air or Air Tanzania. Global Volunteers’ staff pick up volunteers at the Iringa airport and drive to Ipalamwa.
Volunteers stay in the new Volunteer RCP Center built by Global Volunteers specifically for volunteers. Every effort has been made to ensure as much comfort as possible.
Delicious meals are prepared by our staff and include local cuisine and American favorites. Fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking water, coffee and tea are always available, and you can bring your favorite snack from home. Those who enjoy cooking, can take a turn assisting our staff cooks.
Weekends and evenings are free to meet with local people and enjoy the culture.
Many volunteers take a weekend safari in Ruaha National Park and Game Reserve, East Africa’s largest park, about 40 miles from Iringa. It is home to 10,000 elephants and over 500 species of birds, plus thousands of giraffes, lions, buffalos, cheetahs, leopards, hippos and antelopes. The cost is between $300 and $400 per person, thousands less than what a similar safari might cost.
The Tanzania RCP Demonstration Program is led by local people and not by people who live far away and do not understand the local culture. Further, we follow the guidelines required of rigorous experimentation, including collecting appropriate baseline data, protecting individuals’ privacy, comparing villages that are part of the demonstration with similar villages that are not affected by the interventions, and producing statistically significant results.
When the Tanzania RCP Demonstration Program is successful, Global Volunteers will expand its reach to other parts of Tanzania, throughout Africa and across the globe – wherever we are invited. This effort will literally change the world. It only requires 2% of the developed world population to volunteer two to three weeks a year for one generation (25 years) to reach every vulnerable child on earth. On Earth! Each of us knows at least two people out of 100 who, if persuaded they could help even one child and change the face of the planet, would step up and participate.
All photos were taken by volunteers or Global Volunteers staff. A special note of recognition and appreciation goes to Global Volunteers alumna Abby Raeder for her impactful photography.
View End Notes
End Notes