Feed 30 malnourished young children in Kenyan slum

The first one thousand days is a very important stage for fighting chronic malnutrition.  During this window much of a child’s development occurs (the development of the brain and major organ systems). Subsequently this window of development is closed, and not much can be done to reverse the results to growth and development that has occurred. Children at this stage who are chronically malnourished hit developmental milestones far behind their non-stunted peers, score lower on verbal reasoning and are more prone to infectious disease.  This window during infancy, this infamous “thousand days”, is very small.  So small and so fragile, in fact, that many members of the global health community consider it the do or break period for a child.  

Because of your continued support, children like Valerie are spared these serious stunted developmental results. MacheoUS is very grateful for your kind consideration to our cause.

With regards, 

Anne Thompson and the Macheo team

From the Field...

COVID-19 pandemic has deteriorated key determinants of health and caused major upheavals around the world. In Kenya, children, although less directly affected by the virus, are paying a heavy price through the indirect effects of the crisis, including poor diet, mental health impact, social isolation and health care, particularly among vulnerable groups.  

At Macheo, we have continued to offer nutritional support for identified children. We are committed to respond to the immediate and medium-term needs.

What Macheo is doing differently

We are ensuring key preventive and curative nutrition actions to respond to the high numbers of malnutrition. We have adopted a holistic approach to nutrition that is addressing both curative and preventive actions to children and their parents.

• Increase linkage to other sectorial measures such as food security, and social protection, encouraging safe modalities such as cash transfers for those vulnerable households that are facing increasing food insecurity. We are also providing school feeding with nutritional meals to children in public primary schools.

• Adopt innovative solutions, such as remote training on nutrition, counselling and monitoring, to enhance access to quality nutrition care, particularly for those harder to reach.

One Success Story

Rain is the only child of a teenage mother. She was identified by a Macheo area social worker.

During the time of identification she was 9 months old, malnourished and unable to sit upright let alone crawl. She lived with her mother and grandmother who depended on casual jobs for income. After assessment she was found to be moderately malnourished. Rain also had a history of recurrent infections and was taken to a physician who diagnosed her with low calcium and low blood levels.

We then made sure Rain was given all the medicine that was prescribed. Rain's mother started to get nutrition education and diet counseling to properly feed herself and her daughter. Continuous follow ups, home visits and seminars were also done to keep up with Rain's progress, as she was still on medication and vitamins, including deworming.

Today, Rain has gained weight and recovered fully from calcium and iron deficiencies. She is now very active, joyful and playful. Her family are thankful to Macheo for the support they received.

Even before Corona became a global pandemic threatening the health and well-being of many children in Kenya, children under 5 years of age were still suffering from malnutrition and wasting. This raised them at higher risk of malnutrition related ailments. For children who survive, wasting adversely affects children’s body growth, brain development, and school performance in their school life. Malnourished children are at risk during this pandemic, as they are at risk because of potential disruptions in the nutritional services that keep them alive. Under-nutrition makes them more susceptible to infection. And finally, they are more vulnerable because they rely on parents for daily feeding, care and support. If caregivers are sick, quarantined or unable to secure nutritious and safe food and drinking water, children will suffer. Therefore, as COVID-19 pandemic continue to strike in our country, a high burden of humanitarian crisis is on the brink and it is critical to include malnourished children in the list of vulnerable groups to COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic also risks becoming a nutrition crisis, as overburdened healthcare systems, disrupted food systems and income loss for parents, prevent children and women from accessing nutritious diets and essential nutrition services, including those for the early detection and treatment of child wasting.

Aligned with this analysis, Macheo continues to offer nutritional support for identified children. We are committed to respond to the immediate and medium-term needs, to prevent malnourishment and to treat the child. 

What we are doing differently

• We have intensified our intervention to protect, promote and support optimal breastfeeding, age-appropriate complementary foods and feeding for infants and young children, and related maternal nutrition, using all opportunities to include key messages on COVID-19, symptoms, hygiene practices, infection prevention and control measures.

• We are providing safety measures for the current nutrition intervention to reduce potential of infection in malnourished children, their caretakers and our staff by handwashing with soap, physical distancing and intensive messaging and communication to the community.

• We have intensified efforts to strengthen the capacity of mothers and caregivers to detect and monitor their children’s nutritional status, using low-literacy/numeracy tools including mid-upper arm circumference. 

• Providing cash transfers and nutrition supplements to mitigate plans across food, health, and social protection systems to protect and promote nutritious, safe, affordable and sustainable diets that support adequate nutrition for vulnerable families. We are doing this to prevent food insecurity among infants, young children and mothers from families and communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our stories 

Fatuma* is an eight month old only child, who lives with her parents Aisha* and Kariuki* in Makongeni. Her mother is a housewife while her father is a mechanic. She was referred to the Macheo service provider because she was very weak. After an assessment, she weighed only 5.5 kgs  (12lbs) and suffered from delayed development, which meant that at her age, she was unable to sit, had a poor appetite, and was quite inactive. Her mother couldn’t help but worry about her daughter's condition. She also lacked information on proper nutrition.

Through a Macheo intervention, Aisha was equipped with proper knowledge on the diet to give Fatuma. The child was also taken to the hospital for further investigation where she was diagnosed with low calcium and rickets hence her static growth. She was put on medication, supplements, and nutritious feeding. Aisha* then followed the doctor’s advice and within a short period, her daughter was able to sit and she became very active. If Fatuma* stayed any longer without being brought to our attention, she would have probably developed permanent developmental disabilities. Fatuma now has a brighter future because of your support.

 We thank you for allowing us to be able to impact the life of a child in this way.

Thank you for all your support and the amazing help you are giving children like Thomas.

From the Kiandutu Slum in Thika, Kenya....

Thomas* experienced a sad start and didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy his early childhood. When he turned 3 months, his parents separated causing his mother to have to struggle raising him all by herself. Life was a real struggle since his mother only depended on casual jobs that were occasional and paid little money to enable her buy food and pay house rent as well. Living in the Kiandutu slums was characterized by a lack of food, poor living conditions and unemployment that sunk them into the cage of poverty.

When Macheo first identified Thomas, he was 16 months old and weighed just 13 pounds. He fell sick so often because his body did not have the same ability to fight off infection as a well-nourished child’s body would do. Thomas was not yet dewormed, he had little appetite, which only intensified his condition and the complications he was experiencing. He was then enrolled in the malnourishment program, which provided Thomas with nutritional supplements and intensive follow-up to help strengthen his diet that contained nutritionally dense foods. He was also dewormed and provided the care and support he needed to grow as a well-adjusted child. 

Thomas’ mother was also educated about proper nutrition and feeding practices for children, as well as warning signs of malnutrition from training offered by Macheo before the corona pandemic started. She also became trained on proper parenting, hygiene and cleanliness. To reinforce her ability to provide for her family, Macheo enrolled her into the cash transfer program. Through the support, she has started a grocery stall and can now have a stable income. Thomas is now well adjusted and enjoys a happy childhood.

What Macheo is doing to change the environment that childen like Thomas will experience

Even before COVID-19 became a global pandemic threatening the health and well-being of the world, many children under 5 years of age suffered from wasting putting them at higher risk of death. For children who survive, wasting adversely affects children’s body growth, brain development, and later school performance. Malnourished children are the most at risk during this pandemic. First, they are at risk because of potential disruptions in the nutritional services that keep them alive. Secondly, under nutrition makes them more susceptible to infection. And finally, they are more vulnerable because they rely on parents for daily feeding, care and support. If caregivers are sick, quarantined or unable to secure nutritious and safe food and drinking water, children will suffer. 

Macheo has continued to offer nutritional support to children who were identified. Through this intervention; 

• We intensified our intervention to protect, promote and support optimal breastfeeding, age-appropriate complementary foods and feeding for infants and young children, and related maternal nutrition, using all opportunities to include key messages on COVID-19 symptoms, hygiene practices, and infection prevention and control measures. 

• We took safety precautions of the current nutrition programming to reduce potential of infection in undernourished children, their caretakers and staff by hand washing with soap, physical distancing and intensive messaging. This was so because the government still has restricted gathering of any kind. Macheo was forced to work with these children in their homes. 

• We Intensified efforts to strengthen the capacity of mothers and caregivers to detect and monitor their children’s nutritional status using low-literacy/numeracy tools including mid-upper arm circumference. 

• We also intensified pre-positioning (cash transfers for vulnerable families) to buy essential commodities like food for the prevention and treatment of children who were malnourished and routine medical checkups and supplies at national, community and health facility levels.

Dear Friends,

We all know that malnutrition increases the chances of individuals getting ill, staying ill, and dying. It weakens the immune system, increasing the body’s susceptibility to infections and setting in motion a vicious cycle. And just as those experiencing malnutrition and diet-related diseases face worse symptoms from COVID-19, this cycle of malnutrition, infection and death is exacerbated by the present pandemic.

The pandemic has made families face grave challenges in the forms of food price hikes, unemployment, restricted mobility and disruption to health and social services. Regardless of whether they are directly or indirectly affected by the virus – their nutritional intake, and therefore health, has been harmed and urgent action needs to be taken to address the barriers they face in accessing healthy food.

To facilitate improvement Macheo continues to provide critical community-based nutrition services, using innovative/digital delivery systems for basic services such as promotion of breastfeeding, micronutrient supplementation, and basic primary health care, including immunizations.

Macheo scaled up the cash transfer programs, using nutritional vulnerabilities as beneficiary targeting criteria and provide adequate nutrition, health and hygiene advice using innovative solutions such as digital payments and social media messaging.

In the field....

Success Stories 

Rachael is a child of a teen mum. They live in the Kiandutu slum in a rented house with Rachael’s grandmother. When she was referred to our Malnourished Child intervention, she weighed 11 lbs. at eight months old, had delayed milestone, couldn't play and had a very poor appetite. She had other health conditions which were affecting her food intakes. She was taken to a doctor where she was diagnosed with intestinal challenges which was preventing her food intakes. She continued staying in our program for two weeks and in March the government announced a curfew as a control measure to prevent the spreading of Covid 19. That meant that Racheal and other children in our intervention could not come to the center to receive the food rations that had been set for her. 

We came up with the plan of helping Racheal from home. We engaged her mother through regular phone calls for checkups and follow ups. Her mother was taught how to care for her child, prepare a healthy diet for her as well as how to stimulate her baby. She was also put in a cash transfer program where she could buy food and meet other essential needs like house rent. With our support Rachael now looks happy, improved in her health and has started walking.

These successes would not possibe without the help and trust that you have given to us, in order to help the neglected children of this world. 

Thank you and please stay safe in these challenging times.