From Left to Right: Ms. B. Srilakshmi, Program Incharge- IGNOU, Kothari Institute of Home Sciences ; Dr. P. Kuganantham, Head of the department, Social Medicine & Infectious diseases- SRM Institute of Medical Sciences ; Dr. K. Surendran, Surveillance Medical Officer, WHO ; Mr. Cherian Thomas- National Director- World Vision India
World Vision India’ Integrated Programming - Child Health (IPCH) programme reduces malnutrition in 72 districts across India
Results of the IPCH programme unveiled at the State Consultation for Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition held in Chennai
September 22, 2016, Chennai: World Vision India (WVI) today conducted a panel discussion on Maternal and Child Health and nutrition in Chennai. The discussion focused on India’s nutrition landscape and reiterated the need to develop a comprehensive state level plan in partnership with the respective government departments, to fulfill India's commitment to the global health and nutrition target and Sustainable Development Goals. World Vision India is a global humanitarian organization focused on children’s protection.
Dr. Kuganantham, Head of the Department Social Medicine & Infectious Diseases, SRM Institute of Medical Sciences and Dr. Farhat Saiyed, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF were some of the esteemed panelists. Representatives of WVI took the opportunity to share learnings from the IPCH programme,which was a four-year programme implemented across 72 Area Development Programs (ADP), focusing on the reducing malnutrition across country.
‘In the year 2011, around 1.7 million children across the country did not live to witness their 5th birthday due to acute malnutrition. With this in mind, World Vision India rolled out the Integrated Programming on Child Health (IPCH) which was successful. In a brief to our stakeholders we were able to share positive results by end of 3 years of implementation. Through IPCH interventions there has been a reduction in the number of underweight children from 42.1% in 2012 to 25.5% by 2015.
Today’s consultation is to create a model that can be replicated by the state machinery, educational institutions and fellow NGO's. Eradicating child malnutrition is an important component of Sustainable Development Goals. By 2030, as a nation, we have promised to end all forms of malnutrition, including the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age. We believe that our community-centric best practice could help combating malnutrition and restore hope' says Grana Pu Selvi, Strategic Lead- Child health and Nutrition of World Vision India.
The Integrated Programming - Child Health (IPCH)programme was a 4 year large scale initiative that covered an estimated population of about 3.7 million, including at least 350,000 children under five. IPCH was implemented in over 72 Area Development Programmes (ADP) of WVI, with multiple interventions to focus on malnutrition.
It envisioned a multi-sector approach including improved access and utilization of health care services to all families, especially pregnant women and children (0-18 years); improved knowledge and practices of families on appropriate child care, nutrition; economic development (e.g. agricultural support; land tenure, livestock); capacity building and support for community health workers; advocacy for community participation and ownership; and supplementary feeding. The programme partnered with the local governments and community-level institutions.
Some of the most effective strategies of the IPCH were:
* Kitchen gardens: Encouraging communities to grow nutritional rich fruits and vegetables in their back yards or in pots and on terraces to address micronutrient deficiencies
* Kangaroo Mother Care: Ensuring skin-to-skin contact between a mother and her newborn in the rural health centres to prevent neonatal deaths due to hypothermia and improving exclusive breastfeeding practices
* Economic Development Assistance (EDA): The model looked at how WVI can help the BPL families climb up the economic ladder. This was done through distribution of livestock such as goats, cows and buffalos as investment for families to start small businesses
* Engaging key community influencers and gatekeepers such as grandmothers, community leaders and faith healers to promote healthy caring and feeding practices for pregnant and lactating women, and children
* UMANG (Urgent Management and Action for Nutritional growth)- a 90 day community based feeding program which targets children who are underweight. Weekly menu was prepared with one meal and one healthy snack for children based on the availability of low cost nutritious food material that would meet atleast 600K calories of energy, 25g of protein and 400 micro grams of Vitamin A. This meal and snack was given to the children as additional food items apart from the snack and meal given at the Anganwadi centers.
