From the Bernard van Leer Foundation

Banking on baby's brain

By Lisa Jordan, Executive Director, 16 May 2012
Investing in young children is not rocket science. It’s actually neuroscience, with a little bit of molecular biology and genomics thrown in for good measure.
There is a revolution occurring today in neuroscience. What we are learning about children’s development is nothing short of a new paradigm. Everything you have always wanted to know about brain development and early childhood has been brought together in the latest Early Childhood in Focus #7.
Brain research is not telling us what to do with our kids. It is helping us understand why we do certain things with our babies and toddlers and what impact it has on their development. For example, baby talk, also known as ‘’motherese” or “parentese”. From brain research we now know that baby talk helps to produce 900 neural connections a second. As the new edition of ECiF tells us, as an adult plays with the child, “areas of the child’s brain become progressively specialised for recognizing different aspects of the social world.”
Neuroscience is helping us understand the process that happens internally when babies are given adequate rest and good nutrition, and answering important social questions that puzzle parents. For example, we know from neuroscience that screens will never be able to stimulate the same neural activity in a baby as a human face. What a child learns on the iPad is totally different from what he or she picks up from being read to.
Neuroscience has also helped to quell nature vs nurture debates – these issues are really no longer relevant. We know today that children develop through the interaction of nature and nurture, one is not more important than the other and they cannot be divorced. It’s the combination that matters.
Similarly the risk factors that impede a child’s development are all the same, whether that child is born in Uganda, Romania or Kansas. Hunger and neglect are two of the biggest risk factors for impairing brain development. But here is a third. Violence. Violence is toxic to a kid’s brain. And unfortunately, because violence impacts the architecture of the brain, the more violence and stress a kid experiences in her first six years, the more likely it is that her learning capacity will be seriously impaired.
In the first seven years the brain grows more than at any other time in life. Neuroscience is proving what Oscar van Leer suspected all those many years ago -- interventions, if designed and timed right, can not only save generations of children but can allow an entire society to benefit from the productive capacities of a far greater pool of its citizens.
New science points to the importance of investing in young children. Really, as we say in the States, ‘’it’s a no brainer.”
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During University holiday time our older sponsored students come and visit at Kasensa and spend much one to one time with the infants - reading, singing, playing, hugging and visiting the families. 
The brain needs to be stimulated and families need to be continually visited and encouraged so that baby can be reunited with family as soon as possible.

We are grateful for our UNZA student's time spent with the babies!

More on responsible orphan care

"Better Care Network" is another good site that works on behalf of promoting and protecting children's rights.  Look them up!

1. Founding and Purpose of the Better Care Network

Children need and have a right to be cared for by their parents and to grow up in a family environment. This has been recognized through years of experience and research as well as formally recognized under national and international laws, including the United Nations

Convention of the Rights of the Child. Yet millions of children live in residential institutions; no one knows just how many. Around the world, over one million children have been orphaned or separated due to armed conflict, and 15 million children under the age of 15 years
of age have lost one or both parents to AIDS. In many countries, institutions remain a major care response to poverty or family breakdown. In many more, few or no mechanism exist to ensure the most appropriate placements, encourage and support guardianship and adoption arrangements, and to provide support and monitoring for foster families.

Recognizing the urgent need for concerted action, a group of organizations concerned about children without adequate care came together to form the Better Care Network (BCN) in 2003. The purpose of the BCN is to facilitate active information exchange and collaboration
on these issues and advocate for technically sound policy and programmatic action on global, regional, and national levels in order to:Reduce instances of separation and abandonment of children;
Reunite children outside family care with their families, wherever possible and appropriate;
Increase, strengthen and support family and community-based care options for children who cannot be cared for by their parents;

Establish international and national standards for all forms of care for children without adequate family care and mechanisms for ensuring compliance; and that residential institutions are used in a very limited manner and only when appropriate.

The BCN is guided by the UNCRC and the 2003 Stockholm Conference on Residential Care.

Mikey went home with his family at age 14 months! Mom and twin brother died when Mikey was born. Dad and aunty will care for Mikey. This family came together to work at reuniting with Mikey!

On responsible orphan care

Over the past few years I've been researching what best practice information might be available regarding the ZMF-C work that we're involved in. I'm not surprised to see much has been written and published. I am surprised though to see too little of it implemented.
In the last 18 months ZMF-C has updated its philosophy on care of orphans with input from Zambians, and from resources that I'll attempt to provide quotes and links for your 'reading pleasure" over the next few blogs.

The care ZMF-C is attempting to provide is temporary, emergency care and working strongly with churches and families to reunite the babies safely and quickly to families for many reasons. Stay tuned!

What do infants, families, churches and communities need? They need to know that God is speaking to all of us involved in the care of orphans in Psalms 68:6. God places the lonely in families, not orphan homes.

Our experience is that family exists, but may need some support, encouragement and or capacity building to enable them to care for the "orphans". Timmy and Molly were not orphans but were in care for 3 1/2 years ~ they just needed their extended family. Theywere reunited earlier this year (see blogs from February 2012)

From Firelight Foundation - Promise of a Future

THE CHALLENGE

Africa is Being Ravaged by HIV/AIDS and Children are Paying the Greatest Price

Another 10 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa will lose their parents by 2015 due to HIV/AIDS. They will join the 14 million African children who have already lost their mothers or fathers to the disease, bringing the total to 24 million orphans in the region. This is an orphan crisis without historical precedent. It calls for a broad-based response that is compassionate and strategic, and addresses the root cause of the pandemic, which is poverty.

Family and Community Safety Nets Are Weakened by HIV/AIDS

A common thread that runs through Africa’s diverse cultures is that of extended family members stepping in to provide orphans with a nurturing home and a family, which children need to grow into healthy adults. Given the scale and scope of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, it is remarkable that most of the children who have been orphaned continue to be cared for by extended family members. But this safety net is becoming less reliable as more and more caregivers die. Family and community resources are stretched to the breaking point and are in need of help.

Many African countries and international organizations recognize the shortcomings of institutions and discourage their use. They recognize that some children are placed in orphanages by family members to access food, clothing, and an education. They know that the existence of an orphanage can weaken a community’s motivation to address orphan issues.

Building More Orphanages is not in the Best Interests of Children

The sheer number of orphaned and vulnerable children is overwhelming. Many well-meaning donors are funding orphanages as a solution to the problem. However, institutions are very expensive and can only reach limited numbers of children. Most importantly, orphanages often fail to meet children’s developmental needs and do not prepare them for adult life in a community. While institutions can serve as a temporary, last-resort response, they are not a long-term solution.