Kigali 22 June 2018- The call was made this Friday during a meeting with Kigali City Stakeholders which was convened to discuss issues affecting the family. Participants from the government, civil society, religious leaders and academia discussed prevention and comeback measures towards family conflicts, malnutrition, stunting, GBV and early pregnancies. Minister Espérance Nyirasafari vowed a strong partnership with all stakeholders to curb malnutrition. ‘We need combined efforts with everyone present here to eradicate malnutrition and stunting among Rwandan children who are the country’s future. This will be achieved by working with stakeholders but parents should own up responsibilities of taking care of their children.’ Noted the Minister According to statistics from the DHS 2014-2015 showed that stunting in the City of Kigali was at 23% on average, with 29%, 22% and 17% for Nyarugenge, Gasabo and Kicukiro districts respectively. While stunting rates are higher among the poor households especially those living in rural areas, well-off families also have children suffering from stunting and other malnutrition related diseases. The National Early Childhood Development Program (NECDP) Coordinator Dr. Anita Asiimwe said that parents should also feed their children with a balanced diet prepared with hygiene and take them to ECD centers so that they benefit from ECD services. The Government of Rwanda has come up with multiple interventions to tackle the matter, including raising awareness across the country through Evening Parents’ Forum dubbed as ‘Umugoroba w’Ababyeyi’ where citizens are educated on the importance of proper nutrition with specific target to toddlers from 0-6 years who received holistic services from ECD centers. The government emphasizes the need to concentrate on the first 1,000 days of a child's life given that stunting is largely irreversible after this period and because the first years of a child’s development are very important in brain development.