Our Founding Story
In 2017, A Mother’s Love Initiative saw the need to take a decisive action against practices that negatively impacts the mental and general well-being and by extension the hurried child practices in Africa. A social problem that has permeated the African society and bears the root cause to myriads of intergenerational and developmental problems facing the African child in the present day. Discussing these challenges in African context is novel because everyone knows that the African society is not yet fit for African child but have failed to acknowledge and relate the mental health of children as fundamental to the sufferings of the
African Child.
Championing a campaign to create awareness on the mental and general well-being of children and by extension stop the hurried child syndrome in Africa via research, psychosocial support and media advocacy gave rise to a new wave of thinking among child development experts and gave the African child a voice, an array of hope towards an assured futured. A Mother’s Love Initiative does not not only caters for the wellbeing and the future of the African child but also ensure that the family system is re-engineered to accommodate a blend of healthy indigenous practices and modern practices that relevant to the progress of the African society.
Creativity
On our journey towards making a case for the African child, with specific reference to Nigeria, we realized that everyone was guilty of the problem from the bottom to the top of the social class. We were aware of the challenges of advocating for a stop in a practice that benefits the system economically and socially, in the immediate and short term. But we knew the long-term consequences harbored grave implications.
To keep the momentum going, we adopted a sandwich approach in our communication strategy towards reaching out to key stakeholders in our homes, schools, workplace, the international community and the government. We presented information that not only acknowledged the struggles and positive resources resident in African child and their environment, but also pointed out to the negative consequences of practices that negatively impacts the mental and general well-being of the African Child. We achieve this using both traditional and scientific methods.
This strategy facilitated the optimism levels and a solution-oriented view of our target audience (i.e., the African child & Family) thereby increasing our engagement with the public through advocacy and collaboration with other relevant stakeholders in the society.
Social Impact of the Idea
The Hurried Child Project is a project with immediate, short- and long-term benefits to the social fabric of the African society. This project underscores the reeducation of the African on the significance of their collectivistic culture and its direct and indirect impact on the psychosocial wellbeing of the African child and family. The Project seeks to rebuild social relationships between parent and their children’s developmental outcomes, improve the quality of school life, and to reposition the narratives of the African child on a global scale. The Project also aligns with the sustainable development goals set by the UN and other benchmarks by reputation international bodies.