People in Blantyre and Chiradzulu fights malnutrition
People in Blantyre and Chiradzulu fights malnutrition
DAPP Malawi is working to reduce child stunting, maternal and child anemia through mobilizing the communities on the importance of
mothers eating well and providing nutritious food to their infants.
There are many actions in the local communities to spread knowledge on how to avoid malnutrition and what can be done to counter malnutrition using locally available resources.
Malnutrition is among the most prominent faces of poverty in Malawi. Around 40% of the children under 5 years are under-nourished leading to stunting and reduced development of their brain capacity. In acknowledgement of the problem, Malawi joined the international Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement in 2011 in-order to mobilize people to stop this sad situation together with health clinics, government departments and organizations working with people in the local communities.
DAPP Malawi is one of the organizations working with nutrition together with The Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS in a project aligned with the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) program called 1,000 Special Days and launched by the government of Malawi. The project builds capacity of existing local development committees which support the nutrition, child and maternal health activities at community level.
People in Blantyre and Chiradzulu work to improve maternal and child nutrition. 
In the first half of 2016 the activities included establishment of nutrition and health care groups and learning about correct Infants and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices. A total number of 813 Nutrition and Health Care Groups were established. The program’s Field Officers and Lead / Community Volunteers, who are part of the care groups continued carrying out door to door home visits and through that sensitizing 200,000 people on all the essentials around good nutrition.
12,853 lactating mothers were counseled on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months after birth. Lactating mothers were taught on the correct positioning of the baby during breastfeeding, as well as proper diet for lactating women.
Furthermore 11,843 pregnant women were counseled on the importance of attending ante-natal clinic and taking the child to under five clinic for growth monitoring. This has helped to increase the attendance of pregnant mothers to antenatal clinics.
More pregnant mothers and malnourished children are enrolling into Care Groups through the support of the Community Leaders Action Group in Nutrition (CLANS) and the local leadership at village headmen level.
DAPP Malawi has carried out similar programs in other dirstricts of the country and you can watch a moving film about it on DAPP Malawi’s you-tube page:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/dappmalawi
On this page you can also find other films about what people in Malawi do to get an education as teachers and what teachers do to educate the future generations of young Malawians. You can watch films about how people strive to overcome tuberculosis and what is being done to avoid that the number of people infected with both HIV and TB increase and you can find films about how Malawian farmers grow their land to feed their families.
August 2016
