Maternal Child Health and Nutrition
I have been passionate about maternal, infant and young child nutrition for decades, ever since I volunteered to train community health volunteers, fresh out of College in Nicaragua. Unfortunately, the importance of nutrition is often misunderstood. Undernutrition is a global epidemic. Worldwide, approximately 178 million children -- one quarter of the world’s children -- suffer from chronic malnutrition or “stunting” (low height-for-age). Another 55 million children are wasted or underweight (have a low weight-for-height), and nearly 19 million children are literally starving (Lancet Journal, February 2008). Children who are malnourished in the first two years of life will never fully recover their growth potential, and will likely suffer from poor health and lower educational attainment as they progress through childhood. I have been fortunate to work in a number of successful integrated health and nutrition programs, which addressed these problems, as well as operational research. Find links to both below.
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The graphics on the left are a demonstration of "Promise Sheets" developed for mothers of infants and young children 0 to 24 months of age. The purpose of this activity was to help mothers understand what their babies needed for proper nutrition. Mothers were encouraged to adopt one key practice each month, which could improve the health and nutrition of their child. Additionally you see two brain scans side by side. These were used in community sensitization activities where community members and opinion makers were asked which types of brains they wanted in their families and their communities. Reflective Statement: Select this link to access my description and analysis of the importance of these tools for behavioral change and creating an enabling environment. When I arrived at Save the Children's country office in Bangladesh, I found the most rebust commodity tracking system I had ever seen. It actually used PDAs and bar codes on a child growth chart for tracking beneficiaries but it did not track nutritional status or program performance. In my opinion the PDAs were being greatly under-utilized and administrative staff and programmatic or technical staff were working in silos. With a little effort we changed this dramatically and expanded their PDA use in multiple ways. Reflective Statement: Select this link to access my description and analysis of the relevance of appropriate technology, in this instance PDA or personal digital assistants, for development programming. Results Bolivia | Results Bangladesh | Research | Indicators |