Children
Child rights action with informed and engaged societies
Children

After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. 

Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com. 

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

Time to read
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Published 13 years ago
Last updated 4 years ago
Read so far

Implications of diet and nutrition for growth and prevalence of anaemia in rural preschool-aged children in Shandong Province, China

0 comments

Wang, Z., C. M. Patterson, et al. (2000). "Implications of diet and nutrition for growth and prevalence of anaemia in rural preschool-aged children in Shandong Province, China." Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 9(2): 87-92.

A nutrition surveillance and nutritional improvement programme through nutrition field worker training, nutrition education and encouraging the utilization of home gardens was undertaken among rural preschoolaged children in the four counties of Linshu, Caoxin, Zoucheng and Yucheng in Shandong Province in China from 1990 to 1995. A baseline survey was conducted in 1990. This included physical and biochemical measurements being taken on 3474 children aged 0-5 years and dietary household surveys being taken on a random subsample of 312 children. The baseline survey showed that the average height and weight of the subjects was lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) standard with the prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting being 24.2, 12.5 and 2.1%, respectively (using the Z scores ≤ -2 as the cut-off point). The prevalence of anaemia was 61.9% (using haemoglobin (HB) ≤ 110 g/L as the cut-off point). The range of mean intakes of protein and energy was, respectively, 54.0-67.2% and 56.4-68.4% of the Chinese recommended dietary allowance (RDA) depending on the age group. Mean calcium intake was less than 30% of the RDA for all age groups and the mean intakes of ascorbic acid, niacin, retinol and riboflavin were between 30.6 and 96.1% of the RDA. Nutrition education and nutrition field worker training were the key components of the intervention phase that followed the baseline survey. Over 5 years, 531 nutrition field workers were trained, 1200 parents joined in nutrition classes and approximately 8000 villagers received basic nutrition information. The latter included promotion of breast-feeding, identification of sources of appropriate foods for weaning, and also for the prevention and treatment of common nutritional deficiencies. Home gardens for fruit, vegetable and livestock were also encouraged. The evaluation survey of the project was conducted in 1995 among 2728 0-5-year-old children. The results indicated that the nutritional status of preschool-aged children had improved greatly. The prevalence of stunting and underweight was reduced by 37.8 and 21.3%, respectively, while there was no significant change in the prevalence of wasting. The average rate of anaemia decreased by 79.6% in 1995.