Bending The Curve For Children In Zambia

Forbes

09-04-2025

Key Club volunteer Aspen Hess lends a hand during a stimulation class for children under age 2 and their caregivers at the UNICEF-supported Kasunbanya Early Childhood Education Insaka (Hub) in Zambia as Cristina Shapiro, back row, second from right, and colleagues from UNICEF USA observe.
By Cristina Shapiro
At UNICEF USA, our mission is to rally the American people to support children everywhere. We have results to prove that when we invest in them, we build a safer, stronger and more prosperous world.
Even with the funding crisis impacting children now, my recent trip to Zambia to visit UNICEF programs reinforced my conviction that it is possible to bend the curve, to radically improve outcomes for the world's children, and the most vulnerable children in particular.
At the different program sites, I observed three UNICEF strategic priorities at play — common threads that are part of UNICEF's DNA. They are:
Partnership: By partnering with governments at all levels, local NGOs and community leaders, UNICEF is able to reach far and deep while ensuring localized solutions with community buy-in.
Integrated service delivery: Solutions that combine health, education, nutrition and social protection at key points of service are more effective — but require flexible funding.
Community: Meaningful impact happens when community members show up for each other and leverage UNICEF training to scale proven solutions.
Here are some examples of all three of these principles in action.
The Manungua Scaling Up Nutrition program is a UNICEF-led, government-supported initiative that is addressing the problem of stunting, which affects 35 percent of Zambian children, by scaling up malnutrition prevention, identification and treatment.
Implementation is localized and executed with the help of trained community volunteers to drive improved health and nutrition outcomes. The volunteers, who are almost all women, serve as nutrition promoters, teaching families how to find, cook and preserve local high-nutrient foods.
Each is assigned to 10 other households in their rural community. All are given the option of participating in a pooled savings and loan program that helps families weather difficult times.
In Zambia, a UNICEF and partner-supported "Catch-up" education program is helping to address learning poverty among third, fourth and fifth grade students. Above, class is in session at Tunduya Elementary School, outside Lusaka.
At the Tunduya Elementary School, outside Lusaka, we saw how a catch-up program — developed by UNICEF in partnership with the Ministry of Education with the motto 'Forward Ever, Backwards Never' — is providing third, fourth and fifth graders with remedial instruction to address Zambia's learning poverty crisis, in which a majority of the nation's 10-year-olds are unable to read a full sentence.
Students who participate in the catch-up classes show learning improvements after just one month. Based on these results, the program is being expanded nationwide, and has already been rolled out in 60 percent of Zambian schools.
At the Kasunbanya Early Childhood Development (ECD) Hub, or Insaka in Bemba, the local language, I had the opportunity to meet Helen, Angela, Belita and Hildah – four amazing volunteers in the stimulation room for children under age 2.
Kasunbanya ECD hub volunteers Helen, Angela, Belita and Hildah visit with Cristina Shapiro and a representative of Key Club International.
These inspiring individuals walk an hour each way in difficult, muddy terrain to be there for mothers who come with their babies for health checks, nutrition support and early childhood education services, including the interactive play sessions that are so critical for a child's cognitive and emotional development.
The Kasunbanya facility is a demonstration center created by UNICEF in partnership with the government and local NGOs with funding from Key Club International and other donors. It has been so successful that the World Bank is providing the funding needed to create 200 more ECD hubs just like it.
These are just three ways UNICEF Zambia is helping to bend the curve for children. With funding cuts threatening the majority of the Zambian health budget, humanitarian assistance is needed more than ever to keep these efforts going, and to continue making a difference in vulnerable children's lives.
Visitors from UNICEF USA meet with UNICEF Zambia staff to learn more about how UNICEF is supporting vulnerable children in the country.
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Cristina Shapiro is UNICEF USA's Chief Strategy Officer and President of the Impact Fund for Children & UNICEF Bridge Fund