Feed 30 malnourished young children in Kenyan slum

Meet Jackline who weighed only 12 pounds – 6 pounds below the normal weight for her 28” height, when entering our Macheo Malnourished Feeding Program. With protruding ribs, sparse hair and irritable mood. Jackline could only digest milk for the first week of her stay with us.  With nutritious food, proper medication and care, Jackline’s condition improved dramatically. While she stayed a little longer than usual, in less than 6 weeks she gained over 5 pounds and transformed into a healthy and happy girl.

You helped make this happen! Thank You!

GlobalGiving Little by Little Campaign, $10, $20, $50 or $100, can help us to reach our goal of $1,750, to nourish and care for 30 children for one month. We have those children in our Malnourished Feeding Program today and with your help, can acheive this.

GlobalGiving will match 50% up to $50 April 8-12 with $50,000 in matching funds available. Be the first to garner these matching funds. Donate today!

From the day he was born in Kiandutu slums Kimotho’s life was a struggle. His desperately poor vulnerable parents could barely manage to scrape together two skimpy meals for the family each day. Undernourished herself, his mother wasn’t able to breastfeed him, so baby Kimotho was fed the same food of ugali (ground corn) and sukuma, as his parents and older brother.

At 15 months old, little Kimotho weighed 13 pound, more like an average 7 month old baby in the US. He was miserably unhappy and inconsolable.  When he became dehydrated from severe diarrhea, his parents travelled by foot to Thika trauma hospital for hours. After two days of treatment, he was discharged and referred by the nutrition department in the hospital to our center and Kiandutu. He was admitted and we started the journey to recovery.

Because his little body couldn’t tolerate high-calorie food, at first Kimotho was fed small amounts every two to three hours. He required four months of feeding and treatment – twice the average – to restore his health. In the meantime, with her beloved baby finally being nourished and restored to health, his mother Mwikali was taught on diversifying other types of food, the benefits of eating a balanced diet, and how to prepare food using the locally available resources. Her husband Sam was also boosted by Macheo to start a small business and for now they are eating healthy food and studying the essentials of nutrition. Now, children like Kimotho come to the Macheo Malnourished Children's Program for nutritional rehabilitation because friends like you helped with treatment of the underlying malnutrition. 

Thank you for the amazing help you have provided.

For very young children, the period between six months and two years represents a very unique window of opportunity when critical development takes place. In order for children to develop healthily, they must have a diet rich in nutrients. This diet must centre on good maternal nutrition and breastfeeding for the first six months followed by the introduction of a nutritious complementary diet containing vegetables, animal source foods such as milk and eggs. If a child is not given these foods at this point, they become malnourished. The consequences of a poor diet at this time for the young child include long term poor health, disability and poor educational and development outcomes.

At Macheo we create awareness that focuses on the quality of nutrition offered to young children in food for them to develop healthily. We understand that we need to make small steps for both mother and child which has been proven to be effective and can make a big difference in the lives of the children. These include promoting early and exclusive breastfeeding; educating mothers about health and diverse diets for their babies and good hygiene practices; providing supplements for women during pregnancy and for infants after birth and encouraging the parents to grow/farm diverse and nutritious foods. These interventions can reshape a child’s future, giving them the best chance to become healthy and productive members of society. We have scaled down the malnourished child intervention with our other interventions that focuses on the pregnant mother (assisting teen mothers and assisting mothers in child care) so that we reach every would-be mother and every child.

Our success Story

Nyacaba came to the care center as an eight months old baby girl. She was malnourished and had contracted bronchitis and pneumonia. She was also diagnosed with some serious motor development deficiencies. She was immediately taken to the hospital where she was given the medication treatment she needed. She was then enrolled in our malnourished intervention where during her stay, she made steady gains in both her overall health and development over a period of eight months in the intervention. Today, she is an active, mobile, smiling, vocal baby girl.

Conclusion

Without adequate and sustained investments in good nutrition, the SDGs will not be realised. The ambition to ‘End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’ is captured in SDG 2, however, at least 12 of the 17 Goals contain indicators that are highly relevant to nutrition. Malnutrition will represent an often invisible impediment to the successful achievement of the SDGs. It results not just from a lack of sufficient and adequately nutritious and safe food, but from a host of intertwined factors linking health, care, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, access to food and resources, women’s empowerment and more.

On behalf of our beneficiaries we are grateful for the support you have given us.

Introduction

Poverty and poor nutritional intake are significant causes of the high levels of poor infant and child physical growth and development. Poor nutrition can result in delayed cognitive development, long-term damaging effects on infants’ and children’s intellectual and psychological development, impaired immune functions and severe infection. As under-nutrition is a major contributor to the chances that an infant and child will succumb to a life threatening disease, it is estimated that poor nutrition accounts for about 40 per cent of under-five mortality. Chronic malnutrition remains prevalent across the urban slums as many vulnerable families cannot afford nutritious foods or don’t have the relevant information or education to make smart dietary choices.

Food security and nutritional diversity is one of the key areas that we have adopted in fighting malnutrition. With varying local opportunities and challenges, the kitchen garden forms part of the solution that is helping Macheo address food insecurity and bring in self reliance, sovereignty and dignity. Households have labour power– the physical ability of household members to generate income and when this labour power is used in the Kitchen garden it has the ability to improve food security and nutritional diversity of the household. Even with the dwindling land resource small areas around the house as small as ten square meters can make the difference in the lives of many.

Part of our intervention in the malnourished children is to alleviate deficiencies which recurrent food aid will never solve.  That’s where kitchen or family gardens get in the picture, not to produce more rather grow vitamin-rich nutritious vegetables and fruits, which are generally quite expensive on the local market. Low-tech kitchen gardens, simple and cheap like the successful, very efficient sack gardens do provide the useful supplementary nutrition to vulnerable families and their malnourished children.

As part of sustainability and ensuring that the children who are malnourished in the program have a secure supply of vegetables and fruits, we are providing trainings and establishment of kitchen gardens to their parents.

Success story

Makena is one of the beneficiaries who has benefited from the initiative of kitchen garden. We have provided inputs to set up kitchen garden in a space her landlord has given her. She was given vegetables seed, seedlings like spinach and kales. After getting the training on simple care, disease and pest control using the locally available materials and the inputs for the kitchen gardening she started growing her vegetables and now she is providing her family with safe secure food grown by her.

*Name changed for protection 

Dear Friends,

It is always amazing to me to see what the impact of a small gift of love and compassion can do for the life of a child! Knoti was one such child in the Kiandutu slums, that entered our  Macheo Malnourished Children's Program to receive daily food and care. Read Seth's report from Macheo Kenya and realize how your donation was used in the life of this particular child.

Thank you for your continued support, so that we can keep saving children like Knoti.

Regards

Anne Thompson

From the Field......

Beyond the age of 6 months, breast milk alone is insufficient to meet the child’s nutritional needs, hence complementary foods must be provided in addition to breast milk. During this time many children start to suffer due to malnutrition. Lack of clean water and proper nutrition weakens their immune systems and invite infectious diseases, leading to health problems that can last a lifetime and into the next generation.

Through our intervention for assisting malnourished children, we promote timely introduction of appropriate and adequate complementary foods in order to ensure the child has adequate nutrition and health. While the children are recovering on their health, our nutritionist teaches the mothers safe nutritional practices and proper food preparation. This not only ensures that the children stay healthy once they leave but also the entire family's nutrition benefits from the caregiver's training.

“Meet Kinoti, one of the 34 children identified with acute malnourishment during the field visits in Kiandutu by the Macheo area social worker. He looked frail and bony at that time. He was easily irritated and didn’t want to be disturbed. When Kinoti was taken into the intervention of assisting malnourished children at our outreach centre in Kiandutu, he was put on supplementary feeding program for 3 months. He was fed on nutritious food consisting of a well balanced diet. He was also dewormed and treated for a flu he was suffering from. His parents were very much concerned for his wellness and they were eager to commit to the therapeutic program, especially his father. Kinoti's caregiver, who also underwent a series of seminars, including preparing a balanced food with locally available foods, hygiene and care practice sessions. Because of his parent's dedication to his son's treatment, Kinoti showed gradual improvement week after week. his weight increased from 5.4 kg upon admission to 7.4 kg and his mid-upper arm circumference increased from 9.5 cm to 13.5 cm. After staying in the outreach program for three months, Kinoti will be exited from the centre and continuous follow ups at home will be made to ensure he is completely recovered.

Kinoti is now a happy and active kid, benefiting from good health and nourishment. Despite poor and unfavorable conditions in Kiandutu, Kinoti is now enjoying a life above the level of malnutrition because of his parents' love and improved child care knowledge and practices "