Join the #5for5 campaign and help every child to get the best start in life

We don’t remember much about the first few years of our life – but they are vital in making us who we are.

Before we’ve even mastered standing up, our brains are developing at an incredible rate.

By the time we’re five, the brain is 90% developed. If we’ve had the right nurturing care – including the five key areas of health, nutrition, play, learning and protection – we should be on the right road to fulfilling our potential.

But millions of children are not getting the best start in life – particularly in some of the poorest parts of the world. They are missing out on that crucial early care and stimulation because their leaders have not invested properly in early childhood development.

That’s why Theirworld launched the #5for5 campaign – to put pressure on world leaders to take urgent action to make sure all children, especially the poorest and most marginalised, have access to the full range of nurturing care.

Now we have a new film to promote #5for5. We’d love you to share it on Facebook or Twitter. 

And please sign our petition below – we’ll present it to leaders at the G20 summit in July.

What is early childhood development?

ECD supports children’s development from birth to five. It includes programmes and services that every child needs to thrive and get the best start in life.

What are the important factors in ECD?

Nurturing care includes the following areas:

• Nutrition support for babies and toddlers, nursing mothers and pregnant women.
• Access to health care and clean water and sanitation – starting with ante- and postnatal visits for pregnant women, a skilled birth attendant and vaccinations,
• A child with access to pre-primary learning has a much better chance of continuing to learn in later life.
• Opportunities for play and early learning are just as important to healthy development as physical support.
• Child protection for ensuring healthy early development. This starts with registration at birth, so that children have proper legal standing and are guaranteed access to services such as education.

What do we want?

Theirworld’s #5for5 campaign aims to raise awareness of early childhood development and put pressure on world leaders to take urgent action to make sure all children have access to nutrition, health, learning, play and protection.

What will it take?

Promises have been made. The Sustainable Development Goals – a set of global targets agreed by world leaders to be achieved by 2030 – include ensuring all children “have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education”.

To achieve this goal, the international community needs to commit to a dramatic increase in funding and take action to support health, nutrition, learning, play and care programmes to make sure all children – especially the poorest and most marginalised – are given the best start in life.