Martina Adega
Field And Partnerships Coordinator, Tiny Totos
Bold Question: How can we ensure improved health outcomes for children cared for within informal daycare centres within underprivileged neighbourhoods in urban spaces? Doesn’t every child deserve an opportunity to live a healthy life and grow to full potential?
Path to Metis: Martina is a nutritionist by profession and passion committed to driving the wheel of change by eliminating barriers to timely health-seeking behaviour, influencing knowledge, attitude, and practice on matters of Nutrition for families living within urban underprivileged neighbourhoods. She has a special focus on children attending informal daycares. With a drive to improve child health outcomes, Martina advocates for investing in the early years of life as the main tool needed to drive the future economy of a Nation. She understands that childcare can either paralyze or catalyze a woman’s ability to earn a living.
In Tiny Totos Kenya, Martina works alongside an amazing team to partner with informal daycares to improve children's nutrition and access to affordable, accessible quality child care. She has pitched for Tiny Totos Kenya at the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge 2019 and won the regional Income growth & job creation category as well as the Global peoples’ Choice Awards.
To make the process a success, Martina understands that sustainable change is pegged to an inclusive multisectoral approach, and works to engage, the child, the caregiver, and the parent by providing linkages to Government health services under the ministry of health, as well as engage in meaningful partnerships across the sector to influence behaviour change.
She has worked within the development and child care space developing, designing, and implementing community empowerment and development projects in nutrition, education, general health, system strengthening, and economic empowerment. Martina believes that every child has a right to thrive under the age of five, and investing in the early years of life, is investing in the future economy of a Nation.
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