Ngim and her neighbor Roeun Heourn sit on a large wood-slatted bed in the shade beneath her home, chatting and laughing, chopping ingredients with Ngim’s aunt for their babies’ morning meal. They are making Bobor Khab Krub Kroeung, a thick rice porridge made with vegetables and oil and meat, fish or eggs.

Risk of malnutrition

A 2010 survey showed that only 24 percent of Cambodian children aged between 6 and 23 months are appropriately fed. Without enough food, and without a variety of complementary foods with the right micronutrients, children are at risk of malnutrition, which can have a permanent impact on their physical and cognitive development.

More than one quarter of Cambodian children under 5 years old are underweight, and four out of every 10 are short for their age.

Promoting complementary feeding

In April 2012, UNICEF, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development and in partnership with the Royal Government of Cambodia Ministry of Health, National Center for Health Promotion, the National Nutrition Program, the World Health Organization, the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance and Helen Keller International, launched a communication campaign to promote complementary feeding in Cambodia to change the way caregivers feed their children in order to improve child nutrition.

The campaign’s main objective is for caregivers to cook Bobor Khab Krub Kroeung for children aged between 6 and 24 months and ensure that they provide this food hygienically, with appropriate frequency and in the right quantity, while interacting with their babies during feeding.

Putting message into practice

Ngim and Heourn and their babies have benefitted from the campaign. Both women breastfeed their children and complement the breast milk with the porridge. Heourn says she makes the porridge for her baby every day, but Ngim admits that, sometimes, when she’s very busy, she may miss a day of making it for 13-month-old Chanreah. “Occasionally, when my mother is away, [Chanreah] gets rice and water – but he looks unhappy and he doesn’t like it.”

As water boils for rice on a clay stove in the open air, Ngim talks about how she first learned about Bobor Khab Krub Kroeung. “I heard about it from my mother, who is a health volunteer. She took me to see the food cooking demonstration at the [Buddhist temple].”

Heourn, who is mashing pre-boiled pumpkin to add to the pot, says she also saw the food demonstrations and heard about Bobor Khab Krub Kroeung on television and radio. ”The radio [messages] explained that it can make children strong, healthy and clever, and build the body to protect it from being sick. It is different to the porridge we used to give babies with just rice, water and salt. I remember from the TV that we have to give them green vegetables, yellow vegetables, meat, fish, eggs and oil, and it showed us how to cook them,” she says.

Heourn completes the cooking by folding eggs, greens and oil into the bubbling porridge. She takes another small spoon, tastes the food and nods with satisfaction. The mothers then ladle the mixture into small bowls to cool, before serving it to their babies.

Mealtime is not just about feeding. As the mothers have learned through the campaign, it is also an opportunity to talk and play with their babies. Ngim and Heourn use toy cars and rattles to make the children laugh between mouthfuls of food. “I feed him and play, and I don’t force him, but Bobor Khab Krub Kroeung has a good taste, and he likes it,” says Heourn.

Making a difference

Health volunteer Sim Sray passes by to see the mothers and their children. “Children are quite different from before,” she says. “Most used to be malnourished. Now, many are healthy…

“[W]e encourage families to start a house garden and grow vegetables to feed to their children,” she adds. “On my visits, I try to motivate the mothers to cook for their children. In the rainy season, there are many vegetables – but, when vegetables are hard to find in the dry season, I encourage them to cook together with each neighbor contributing something.”

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Article by Denise Shepherd-Johnson

Photo: © UNICEF Cambodia/2013/Khoy

The post UNICEF: Nutrition Campaign Helps Make Cambodia’s Children Strong, Healthy and Clever first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Positive findings

The 2012 survey, known by its French acronym EMMUS, was commissioned by the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population and carried out by the Haitian Childhood Institute (IHE), which collected  data on infant mortality, disease and use of services in the country. UNICEF was a major financial contributor and resource provider, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

According to Director of IHE Dr. Michel Cayemittes, “[The survey] enables us to determine the level of health and demographical indicators, allowing us to see the evolution of these indicators over time.”

Preliminary results of the survey bode well for the situation of children in Haiti, particularly in the areas of education and nutrition. Some of the most positive findings are in the area of education, which shows a 22 per cent growth in school attendance among children 6–11 years old over the period. Seventy-seven per cent of these children attended primary school in 2012, as compared to just under 50 per cent in 2005–2006.  An increase in school attendance among girls in Haiti has also been noted.

Situation after the earthquake

The survey allows an overview of the population affected by the 2010 earthquake, especially of the more than 300,000 people still displaced and living in camps, who remain among the most vulnerable population in the country.

According to Anne-Rose Saint-Preux, Nutrition Manager for UNICEF’s partner on the ground FONDEFH, the situation after the 2010 earthquake and the economic situation of parents were important factors in a considerable increase in the number of malnourished children.

Twenty-eight-year-old Vanessa saw malnourishment first hand. Having lost almost everything in the earthquake, she moved to camp Aviation, only to find her son Samuel malnourished. She brought the baby to a camp healthcare center run by FONDEFH, which provides pre- and postnatal care services, vaccinations and malnutrition screening.

Samuel was diagnosed as being acutely malnourished and placed on a treatment program that included a regimen of vitamin-enriched foods such as Plumpy’nut. He was monitored weekly for changes and developments. He responded to the treatment quickly and is now healthy and at a normal weight for his age.

The nutrition consultation and treatment program are supported by UNICEF, which provides materials, medicine and support to do the work on the ground.

The preliminary results of the 2012 survey, in comparison with the results from the 2005–2006 survey, show that efforts like these are working: Acute malnutrition in children under 5 years old has decreased by half – from 10 per cent to 5 per cent – and chronic malnutrition has also decreased – from 29 per cent to 22 per cent.

UNICEF Country Representative in Haiti Edouard Beigbeder says, “We were able, with the support of the international community, to bring services to the pre-earthquake level, but as well, to bring new results for the children of Haiti. The issue in the coming two years will be how to sustain these results.”

More to be done

While the survey points out where improvements have been made, it also highlights persistent bottlenecks, such as to quality of education, access to basic sanitation and reducing HIV infection.

Challenges still remain in Haiti, but for Vanessa, access to the resources and care at the UNICEF-supported FONDEFH clinic helped Samuel push through his period of malnutrition.

Ms. Saint-Preux says, “Unfortunately, I can’t say malnutrition has been completely eradicated here – hopefully one day I can. But, when I look back on where we started in 2010, compared to where we are now…thanks to the combination of prevention and treatment we are providing at the center with the support of organizations like UNICEF, I can say we’ve made great strides in decreasing malnutrition.”

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Article By Michelle Marion

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Photo: Jessica O’Connor / Salesian Missions

The post UNICEF: Three Years After Haiti Earthquake, Survey Sheds Light on Current Status of Children and Women first appeared on MissionNewswire.

While in Haiti, Pineda met with local Salesian missionaries, USAID representatives and officials from the Haitian government’s National Center for Food Security. He also toured the Plumpy’Nut (Medika Mamba) manufacturing plant of the nonprofit Meds and Food for Kids (a potential project partner dedicated to the treatment and prevention of childhood malnutrition in Haiti). The Salesians’ proposed project focuses on: enhancing food security by improving agricultural production and productivity in agriculture schools in Cap Hatien, Fort Liberte and Gressier; cholera prevention through education and water and sanitation techniques; and addressing malnutrition in the poorest slum areas of Port-au-Prince such as Cité Soleil through a direct feeding program.

Salesian Missions, headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, is the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The Salesians Missions Office for International Programs was assigned the task of coordinating international Salesian relief efforts immediately after the January 2010 earthquake. The Salesians have served Haiti for nearly 75 years, operating schools, feeding programs, orphanages, youth programs and building educational infrastructure. For more information, go to SalesianMissions.org.

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