By: Bashir Hassan Abubakar
In many communities across Northern Nigeria, traditional and community structures continue to wield considerable influence over household decisions, social behaviour and access to essential services. This makes the community not just a social structure, but a powerful platform for changing attitudes, challenging harmful practices and promoting healthier behaviours.
It was against this background that the Bauchi State Government, with funding from the United States Government and technical support from the UNICEF Nigeria Bauchi Field Office, launched an intervention in April 2026 aimed at improving the health and nutrition of mothers and children during the first 1,000 days of life.
The intervention, known as the “1,000 Days of Life”, focuses on the critical period from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday—a period widely recognised as a crucial window for healthy growth, brain development and long-term wellbeing.
The objective is to prevent malnutrition by ensuring that mothers and children receive appropriate nutrition, healthcare, information and community support during this critical stage of life.
Experts say adequate nutrition and healthcare during the first 1,000 days can help children grow, develop and learn better, while reducing their vulnerability to illness, stunting and other consequences associated with malnutrition. The benefits also extend beyond the child, contributing to healthier families and stronger communities.
For Bauchi State, where maternal, infant and child mortality and morbidity remain important public health concerns, interventions that address preventable causes of poor health and malnutrition are particularly significant.
But while health facilities remain essential to delivering nutrition and other health services, experience from communities visited during a recent media field trip suggests that much of the success of the intervention depends on what happens beyond the walls of health facilities.
In selected communities in Misau Local Government Area, Community Resource Groups (CRGs) are increasingly becoming a link between households and the formal healthcare system. Their work is helping to take health and nutrition messages directly to families, where decisions about antenatal care, immunisation, breastfeeding, complementary feeding and the use of nutrition commodities are often made.
At Kukure community in Misau LGA, community leader Nuhu Mohammed described what he called a renewed wave of health advocacy driven by the CRGs.
He said the Mama-to-Mama, an all-women community resource group, conducts door-to-door health education targeting women in their homes, while the Fathers for Good Health (F4F) initiative engages men and male caregivers.
According to Mohammed, the approach has helped address some of the misconceptions and reluctance among men regarding their spouses’ use of healthcare services.
“Due to such enlightenment by the CRGs, I myself have become an advocate for healthcare services such as routine immunisation, antenatal care, postnatal care, good nutrition from our local crops and the general wellbeing of our people,” he said.
His testimony illustrates one of the important roles of community engagement: turning health information into collective action.
Rather than relying solely on health workers to reach households, trained community volunteers are taking messages on maternal and child health directly to families, engaging husbands, mothers and other caregivers and encouraging them to make informed decisions.
For nursing mother Mas’wira Adam, the impact of the Mama-to-Mama volunteers is particularly evident in the quality of information reaching women at household level.
She said the health education she received from the community volunteers and healthcare workers improved her understanding of maternal and child nutrition, including appropriate feeding practices after breastfeeding.
Of particular interest to her was the information on nutrition commodities and supplements, including Small Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements (SQ-LNS), Tom Brown and Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS).
However, Mas’wira also pointed to a challenge that could undermine progress: occasional shortages of nutrition commodities.
She appealed to the state government and development partners to strengthen the availability of essential nutrition supplies and consider establishing Misau as a Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) centre.
Her concern highlights an important reality. Community mobilisation can increase awareness and demand for services, but sustained impact also requires health facilities to have the commodities, personnel and systems needed to respond to that demand.
For UNICEF Bauchi Field Office Nutrition Specialist Philomina Irene, the community component is therefore central to the intervention.
She disclosed that support from the United States Government had enabled more than 40,000 children aged 6–23 months to receive Small Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements for the prevention of malnutrition.
She added that more than 6,000 Mama-to-Mama and Fathers for Good Health volunteers had been trained to provide practical skills and public health messages on the prevention of malnutrition and other interventions covering the first 1,000 days.
More than 50 healthcare workers had also received training on supplementation and related nutrition services, while support had strengthened logistics and health information management systems and improved the capacity of Local Government Food and Nutrition Committees.
Irene said local governments were increasingly being encouraged to take greater ownership of nutrition interventions by committing and releasing funds for nutrition activities and commodities.
She described the period from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday as a critical “window of opportunity” because significant brain, muscular, skeletal and vital-organ development occurs during this stage.
She warned that inadequate nutrition during the first 1,000 days could have long-term consequences for children’s development and their ability to reach their full potential.
At the state level, Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr. Rilwanu Muhammad, said community volunteers had become indispensable bridgebuilders between households and the healthcare system.
He explained that the Fathers for Good Health initiative was introduced after observations that some fathers were reluctant to support vaccination, antenatal care and appropriate nutrition practices.
According to him, the programme, which began in Ningi and Misau LGAs, has now expanded to more than 10 LGAs, with volunteers selected by their communities.
Although the volunteers work without regular salaries, Dr. Muhammad said their contribution to maternal and child health was significant.
“They track women to ensure facility delivery, postnatal care, immunisation, exclusive breastfeeding for six months and then introduction of complementary feeding,” he said.
He, however, expressed concern about the gap between antenatal care attendance and facility delivery in the state.
“Almost 70 to 80 percent of mothers in Bauchi State attend antenatal care, but only about 35 to 40 percent deliver in a healthcare facility,” he said, adding that the state sometimes supports volunteers with transport allowances to reach hard-to-reach settlements.
This gap demonstrates why community engagement remains important. A woman may receive information during antenatal care, but decisions about where she delivers, whether her child receives immunisation and what the child eats at home are also influenced by husbands, relatives, community leaders and other people around her.
The CRGs are helping to bring these actors into the conversation.
Some of the volunteers who spoke during the field visit said they were gradually winning the trust of community members. They described the experience as encouraging and commended the Bauchi State Government and UNICEF for the capacity-building opportunities that had strengthened their ability to serve as community mobilisers.
Their experiences point to a broader lesson: preventing malnutrition cannot be left to health facilities alone.
The first 1,000 days begin in the home, and it is in homes and communities that many of the decisions that determine a child’s nutritional wellbeing are made. Whether a mother receives support during pregnancy, whether a child is exclusively breastfed for the first six months, whether appropriate complementary foods are introduced, whether immunisation is completed and whether families seek care when a child is sick are all influenced by knowledge, attitudes, social norms and family support. This is where community structures can make a difference.
When community leaders champion healthy practices, when fathers support women to access healthcare, when women share accurate nutrition information with one another and when trained volunteers connect households with health services, the fight against malnutrition becomes a collective responsibility.
For Bauchi State, strengthening these community-led approaches—while ensuring reliable supplies, functional health facilities and sustained government financing—could help translate the promise of the first 1,000 days into healthier beginnings for thousands of children.
Ultimately, the first 1,000 days of a child’s life may belong to the child, but the responsibility for protecting those days belongs to the entire community.
