Nyakinama, Musanze: From 11th to 13th February 2020 there was held a three day “Training of communication professionals on Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Strategy for Early Childhood Development (ECD) services, Nutrition and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)”. The training was intended to instill strategic actions into participants in a bid to help Rwandan parents/care givers change their mindset and adopt adequate practices in terms of nutrition mostly for pregnant women and lactating mothers.

Organized by the National Early Childhood Development Programme (NECDP) in collaboration with the Delegation of European Union to Rwanda under the leitmotiv “Communication professionals promote investing in early years”, the training was gathering communication professionals from all the 30 districts, the four provinces, social cluster ministries and affiliated agencies.

On the closing day of the training (13th February 2020), participants to the training interacted with Mr. GATABAZI Jean Marie Vianney, Governor of Northern Province, and Mr. DUSENGIYUMVA Samuel, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Local Government.

In his address to trainees, Governor GATABAZI reiterated that dealing with public relations for an institution required both passion and motivation on the part of communication professionals their bosses respectively. He thanked NECDP for organizing such a training and urged communication professionals to stick on reflecting the proper image of their institutions while considering their clients/citizens’ views and success stories for a brighter future. “It is our duty to tell ECD stories and their impact in a bid to prepare future generations since as we become older, we need to be in safe hands, and these are school boys and girls who will become military men/women, medical doctors, engineers, and so forth. So, by fighting malnutrition and stunting, we are preparing a healthy and prosperous nation”, he said.

Mr. DUSENGIYUMVA Samuel, in his turn, emphasized on the power of information and communication in shaping the public opinion vis-à-vis nutrition and extreme poverty. “You have the power to change the course of events, to shape the public opinion […] Poverty is a mindset problem, and yet it is our role as Local Government to reduce extreme poverty from 16% to 0% by 2024 as committed by the Government of Rwanda”, he stated. DUSENGIYUMVA advised trainees to get organized, always have a communication plan, request for support whenever necessary, maintain good relationships with media practitioners, grab opportunities lying into the digital transformation era, and most of all keep up their pen to tell citizen centered success stories.

During the course of the training, participants were driven through a number of topics including: “Integrated ECD and how it impacts other sectors”, “Stunting and ECD – investing in early years”, “SBCC National Strategy – Situation Analysis and Key Behaviors/Messages”, “Message Delivery – Interpersonal Communication”, “Message Development for Mass Media”, “Message Development and Delivery though Social Media”.

The training was accompanied by discussions and practical examples on how to efficiently and effectively communicate to influence parents, pregnant women and lactating mothers, health care givers, teachers, and all the people concerned with physiological, mental and emotional health of infants aged between 0-2 and children from 2 to 6 years. Available statistics indicate that the stunting rate in Rwanda was at 38% in 2015 (DHS 2015). The Government of Rwanda therefore committed to invest in all possible efforts to reduce it to 0% by 2024.