Twice a week our team provide early childhood stimulation sessions to the mothers of Nuevo Libertadores, because studies show that, large numbers of children in developing countries are exposed to multiple risk factors in the early years of life including poor health, malnutrition and low levels of home stimulation. Risk factors covary – (for example, poverty covaries with low maternal education, teenage parenting, child undernutrition, low birth weight, high levels of maternal depression, unsafe neighbourhoods and low levels of stimulation in the home) – and children exposed to multiple risk factors are at heightened risk for poor development. Helen Baker-Henningham, Florencia Lopez Boo.
The families that we are working with have all these risk factors and there is a pressing need for this program.