Bhekisisa Health Beat Interview: Focus on moms
DGMT’s Nutrition Lead, Liezel Engelbrecht, spoke to Mia Malan on a recent Bhekisisa Health Beat episode about why a maternity support grant, starting in the second trimester and continuing until three months after birth, could reduce low birth weight, prevent stunting, and save billions in healthcare costs. Watch an excerpt of their discussion below.
PowerFM Interview: Pilot programme to reduce stunting and malnutrition in children
In South Africa today, more than a quarter of children under five are stunted. Despite our status as one of the most developed countries in Africa, we continue to grapple with the issue of childhood stunting. PowerFM was in conversation with Food Justice Journalist, Naledi Sikhakhane, as they unpack a pilot programme by the Western […]
Smile FM Interview: Giving babies a better start through maternal nutrition
Liezel Engelbrecht, Nutrition Strategy Lead for the Hold My Hand Accelerator at DGMT, spoke to Smile FM to unpack a new pilot in the Western Cape tackling one of South Africa’s silent crises: childhood stunting. With more than a quarter of children under five affected, the pilot focuses on improving maternal nutrition as a first […]
News24 Article: High hopes that bold project could reshape SA’s fight against childhood stunting
An innovative pilot may offer new momentum in the country’s efforts to reduce childhood stunting. Announced on World Health Day – marked this year with the theme ‘Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures’ – the initiative reflects growing urgency to invest in maternal and newborn health. The first 1,000 days of a child’s life – from conception […]
Daily Maverick Article: Western Cape to tackle ‘shocking’ stunting stats in ‘targeted’ nutrition scheme for moms, babies
In 2022/23, about 1,000 children lost their lives to preventable acute malnutrition and 15,000 had to be admitted to hospital due to severe acute malnutrition in South Africa. To address the issue, the Western Cape Health and Wellness Department, in partnership with DG Murray Trust and Department of the Premier, will launch a pilot programme later in 2025 in […]
Op-ed: Ignoring child nutrition in South Africa can’t be the next big mistake
President Cyril Ramaphosa regrets that early childhood development (ECD) was not prioritised from the advent of democracy. At the Bana Pele Leadership Summit last month, he turned to Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube and said: “I’m the first in government to admit that we have made a mistake. We should have started with early childhood development […]
Maternal Support Grant: It’s social justice
The Learning Lunch podcast explores ideas, approaches and social innovations – creating opportunity for non-profit organisations’ teams to discover what others are learning and space to reflect on what these insights might mean for their own strategy and programme implementation. Download takeaway instructions What comes to mind when you hear the term ‘social protection’? For […]
ENCA Interview: Pilot programme to support the nutrition of pregnant women
The Western Cape Health Department, in partnership with the DGMT, is running a maternal support programme focused on underweight, at-risk pregnant women and new mothers of low birth weight babies. Read more about the pilot here. David Harrison, CEO of the DG Murray Trust, spoke to ENCA. Watch the interview below.
Op-ed: Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures: Tackling South Africa’s stunting crisis through maternal support grants
This year’s World Health Day theme, Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures, challenges us to ask: Are we giving our children the foundation they need to thrive? One way to answer this is by looking at South Africa’s stubbornly high stunting rate — a powerful population-based indicator of chronic malnutrition among children under five that measures height for age. […]
New pilot to support the nutrition of pregnant women and mothers in the Western Cape
On 7 April 2025, Western Cape MEC of Health and Wellness, Mireille Wenger, delivered her budget speech in which she tackled a hard reality: over a quarter of children under five in South Africa are stunted. MEC Wenger pointed out that stunting isn’t just a health issue; it limits a child’s potential in every way. […]
