Displaced but not forgotten

 A nutrition programme battered by Cyclone Freddy is empowering women for enhanced child nutrition and well-being, writes freelance journalist ARNOLD MUNTHALI.

Under normal circumstances, Multi-sectoral Nutrition Programme, including the Early Childhood Development project includes several activities to improve the health of pregnant women, lactating mothers, and under-five children.

The project is implemented in Traditional Authority Machinjiri, Blantyre, by the Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM) with support from KFW through Unicef Malawi.

It builds the capacity of women caregivers through care groups.

The community-led initiative allows information about nutrition, hygiene, sanitation and early child development to flow from frontline workers through promoters to cluster leaders who lead care groups.

“We train them in sanitation and hygiene, as well as the best feeding practices for under-five children and pregnant and lactating women,” explains FUM nutrition field officer Florence Kambala.

Tthe project encourages every household to own clean latrines and hand-washing facilities complete with soap.

The promoters and cluster leader encourage beneficiaries to grow vegetables around their homes and rear small animals for meat, milk and eggs.

“We also ask them to use micronutrient powder to supplement the children’s nutrition and encourage them to access vitamin A and Albendazole for deworming,” Kambala adds.

The peer-to-peer initiative encourages pregnant women to attend antenatal clinics for advice from healthcare workers.

However, Cyclone Freddy disrupted all that, leaving children aged below five, pregnant women and lactating mothers confined to congested camps for internally displaced persons, where they cannot establish backyard gardens nor access nutritious food, sanitation and hygiene.

Kambala explains: “Most of the Cyclone Freddy survivors come from the areas where we work, so they are our beneficiaries.

“Since the cyclone, everything was disrupted, especially the care group sessions, because the people were traumatised.”

However, change agents in the multi-faceted nutrition programme, including the early childhood development promoters, kept following up on the children and women in the camps.

“After they fled to the camps, we started going there to conduct care group sessions and community complementary feeding sessions, where we cook diversified food, including porridge, for children, lactating mothers, and pregnant women,” Kambala says.

Mayera Camp in Chileka, Blantyre, holds about 400 displaced people, including those previously held at Chirimba and Namatete decommissioned camps. The population includes including 14 pregnant women and 52 children aged below two.

The project has not relented in its advocacy for better health services in camps such as antenatal and under-five clinics, nutrition screening and dispensing vitamin A and Albendazole.

“We are working hand in hand with health surveillance assistants [HSAs]. On some days, we hold under-five and antenatal clinics and we also conduct nutrition screening and cook porridge for children,” she says.

Crucially, the project has trained mothers on the importance of hygiene and sanitation, good feeding practices and diversified diets from six food groups.

After her house collapsed due to torrents trigged by Cyclone Freddy, Lucy Evans moved into the camp with her three children aged seven month to 11 years.

Before her infant son was born, she had been employed to grade pepper at a firm within Blantyre City, but she had to leave the job after giving birth. The cyclone left her in a difficult situation.

Although she was not a care group member before the cyclone, Evans says she “fed the children properly”.

Since joining a care group under the multi-sectoral nutrition programme, she says: “What I have gathered from the sessions here is about preparing potatoes as porridge with groundnut flour, eggs and vegetables added to it.

“It’s very nutritious food for a child and my children can grow healthy with this.”

Andrew Maduka, an HSA for the Chileka Health Centre, says the nutrition programme encourages using locally available resources to improve the nutrition of babies, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.

He explains: “ “The project focuses on how we can prepare nutritious food using locally available resources.

“So when this camp started, FUM realised that some of its beneficiaries were there. We come here periodically to measure their nutritional status using the Muac [mid-upper arm circumference] tape.

Maduka is supposed to refer any children to Chileka Health Centre for further treatment if they were found to be in danger of malnutrition.

“But we haven’t had a case of malnutrition since the camp was opened,” he says.

Despite being displaced by the disaster, Lucy is determined not to waste the knowledge she has picked up during her time at the Mayera camp.

“When I return home, I want to start a backyard garden and feed my children meals based on the recipes I have learnt here. My biggest desire is to rebuild my house to return my life to normal,” she says.