Short description

The goal of the project is improved MCHN (= Maternal Child Health and Nutrition) with a strategic objective of reduced stunting levels in children U5’s in Kateta SC. All HH’s with pregnant women, lactating mothers and children below two years of age will be targeted.

The problem we aim to solve

In Uganda, under nutrition accounts for 60% of child mortality.The UDHS, 2016 report indicates that 29% of children below five years of age are stunted, 4% wasted and 11 % underweight. In Serere District, 39.1% of children below five years of age are stunted, 64% exclusively breastfed, only 24% and 34% of children 6-23 months of age meet the criteria for MMF (= Minimum Meal Frequency) and MDD (= Minimum Diet Diversity) respectively. Also, nearly half (34%) of the total disease burden (75.1%) among U5’s in Serere District are due to diarrhea and only 37.1% of those with diarrhea receive increased fluids

Our solution

The proposed project will directly reach 1,587 beneficiaries consisting of 1,057 females and 506 males, and indirectly 4,733 beneficiaries consisting of 2,367 females and 2,367 males. Specifically, the proposed project will target approximately 500 households, 651 pregnant women, 924 lactating mothers, 2,005 children 0-23 months and 60 Care Group N-Corps (= Nutrition-Corporations). Focus will be on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. The proposed project will use strategies of enhancing technical capacity of Care Groups to provide nutrition services, increased utilization of ENAs (= Essential Nutrition Action) and care giving practices, and improved linkages and referrals to nutrition services. The Care Group model approach will be adopted for Behavior Change Communication activities using 20 Care Group N-Corps each reaching 10 Neighbor Women Households with ENAs and WASH (= Water, Sanitation and Hygience) messages. The proposed activities that will contribute to the achievement of the objectives will include among others training of Care Groups on ENAs and care giving practices, home visits, referrals and follow ups. Increased capacity to provide ENAs and care giving practices through training Care Groups will increase knowledge and skills of beneficiary HHs on ENAs and care giving practices will contribute to intermediate results of improved feeding in pregnant women, lactating mothers and children 0-23 months, changed negative cultural beliefs and among cultural and religious leaders and improved caring practices among caregivers of children 0-23 months.