The Aponjon Shoishob is a comprehensive health information service which delivers important weekly messages to parents of children aged 2-5 years. The service is designed to cover all aspects of growth of the child, including physical, mental, social, familial and spiritual areas. The messages are aligned to time specific needs according to the age of the child along with common issues that can occur round the year.
Bangladesh has demonstrated tremendous success in achieving MDG Goal 4 (Reduce Child Mortality) in its various indicators like reduction of under-five mortality rate. The role of Behavioral Change Communication (BCC) has been well established in this MDG goal achievement. In spite of our success in reaching the MDGs, the under-five mortality rate can be further reduced by improvement of health and nutrition of children throughout the spectrum of income groups, geographical locations, urbanization state, and gender distribution. Besides that, a number of issues were identified in the 2015 MDGs Bangladesh Progress Report as major causes of under-five mortality. The new elements identified as major causes of under-five mortality in the 2015 MDGs Bangladesh Progress Report such as drowning and other childhood injuries are yet to be addressed for seeking a solution. At the same time, setting up plans for assisting in achieving the SDG Goal 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages) by ensuring health and early stimulation for the children is also necessary. The Aponjon Shoishob messages aim to cover these aspects.
Furthermore, to address SDG Goal 4 (Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning), the need for starting quality education at home for children becomes an issue of paramount importance. Aponjon Shoishob messages will put a very strong emphasis on methods and techniques for quality early education at home.
Also, there remains a major lacking of knowledge on good parenting practices, good practices for child’s healthy social orientation, child abuse, potential hazards/threats for children throughout the population segments. As a result, parents are often confused when it comes to decision making regarding health and well-being of their children – a scenario evidenced by feedbacks from the Aponjon subscribers. For these reasons Aponjon has been receiving strong demand from the field for an extended mode of the current Aponjon service until the child is 5 years old. The Aponjon Shoishob messages focus on these issues in order to ensure health and safety of children.
The subscribers of the service (parents of children aged 2-5 years) will receive the service for a period of a maximum of 3 years (from the first week after the child’s second birthday to the 5th birthday). The subscriber will receive 2 messages per week during this period. The 24/7 medical counseling is also available in this service.
The content of the messages cover all aspects relevant to the child’s growing up, including –
- Health, growth and development issues of the child including information on developmental landmarks
- Nutrition & hygiene
- Medical issues (common childhood diseases) along with probable remedies and advices (home remedies, prevention & danger signs)
- Behavioral development of child
- Playful development & learning
- Good parenting practice & ways to healthy resolution of conflicts
- Pre-schooling tips
- Safety of child from accidents and abuse
- First aid and home remedies
- Other aspects of effective early childhood development
- Tips on how to make the best balance of parents’ personal, work and social life in making effort to child’s healthy upbringing of the child.