Feed 30 malnourished young children in Kenyan slum

Sharon is one of the little ones you have helped recently. At 12 months she weighed just 14 lbs. She was screened for severe malnutrition, having scattered clumps of hair, dry skin and skin rashes.  She was admitted to the Macheo Malnourished Children’s Program where she was fed on fortified porridge in the morning, nutritious lunch, milk and a fruit. Weeks after Sharon was admitted into the program she started showing signs of improvements, with the help of caregivers and the nutrition team.

April 9-13 we are raising funds for children like Sharon through the GlobalGiving ‘Little by Little’ campaign. Donate $50 and GlobalGiving will add $25, up to a total of $50,000 across their eligible projects. Be the first to garner these funds early in the week for Macheo’s Malnourished Children’s Program in the Kiandutu slum of Thika Kenya.

Thank you in advance for caring about feeding these little children.

Malnutrition or malnourishment is a condition that results from eating a diet lacking in nutrients. Malnutrition in children is especially harmful. The damage to physical and cognitive development during the first two years of a child’s life is largely irreversible and also leads to poor school performance, which can result to children not reaching their full potential.  Most of these cases of malnutrition are preventable through simple measures. At Macheo we recognize that a child's most significant development takes place during the first 1,000 days.  

With your support we gave daily rations of highly nutritious balanced diet food to 30 malnourished children at our Kiandutu outreach centre. we believe that when there is access to sufficient food and low exposure to repeated illness, proper nutritional basics can be achieved and growth potentials for children can be reached.

Nutrition sessions

During the reporting quarter we held 6 seminars for the guardians with an average of 26 guardians being reached on each seminar. Our aim for the training was to empower/strengthen the caregivers with information on proper child feeding practices. Mothers learnt about nutrition with sessions like cooking demonstration using the locally available food. They also learnt on the importance of kitchen gardening through demonstrations, using locally available vegetables. Two mothers have already started a kitchen garden. We also made weekly home visits for follow ups to ensure that parent were cooking food using the locally available food they bought.

Our Success story

*Kariuki is a healthy 13-month-old boy who is learning how to walk and loves playing with other children. He has been in our program for the last four months and he was successfully exited after attaining normal nutrition status. When he was 9 months old, our social worker identified him while they were doing the village visits. When his MUAC was taken it was discovered that he wasn’t gaining weight at a normal rate. Immediately, our social worker referred his mother *Martha, who was only 16 years old to our outreach centre in Kiandutu for nutrition support. He was evaluated by our nutritionist and was enrolled in the program. But Kariuki had other health conditions like coughing. He was supported to see a doctor to examine him for other underlying condition.

Martha reported that she stopped going to school once she was pregnant and had practiced exclusive breastfeeding since Kariuki was born as advised by his grandmother. As a result, in his first six months, Kariuki was hardly sick and he grew normally. It was after six months that his growth began to falter. Martha didn’t know that her young child needed a balanced complementary nutritious food in addition to breast milk to keep him well nourished after the age of 6 months. She only fed him on rice and mashed potatoes.  

Kariuki’s mother was also encouraged to attend the weekly seminars on nutrition so that she can improve her care for Kariuki’s at home during the evenings. Our caregivers with the help of the nutritionist helped the young mother identify foods she already had at home that would be good for Kariuki, like enriched porridge, vegetables and fruits. They encouraged her to continue to breastfeed him in addition to feeding him enough nutritious complementary foods at the right frequency.

On behalf of Kariuki and many other children who have benefitted from this intervention, we thank you for your support.

 *Name changed to privacy reason

Malnourished children experience developmental delays, weight-loss and illness as a result of inadequate intake of protein, calories and other nutrients. Because so much development occurs in the first few years of life, nutrient deficiencies can have major short and long -term implications in young children. Our outreach centre is situated in Kiandutu slum which has a high prevalence of malnourished children. It takes care of 30 malnourished children at any given time, until children are exited.

Malnutrition cases among identified children by Macheo are caused by children not being fed on a balanced diet. With your support, we carried out the following activities at the centre.

1.  We continued feeding children with fortified porridge in the morning, providing nutritious lunches, milk in the afternoon and a fruit in the evening. Anthropometric measurements were taken every week to check the progress of the children. In order to prevent children from malnutrition in the future, guardians of malnourished children in the program participated in nutrition related seminars from which they were given information on Malnutrition, Hygiene and child development milestones from 0 – 5 years.

2.  3 children were de-wormed while 6 children were exited and replaced by four children. We are replacing 2 more children in the coming month. 7 children have improved their status according to the Anthropometric measurements records. 2 were sick and were taken to hospital.

Many of the children have continued to improve and are now mildly malnourished according to anthropometric measurements and children who attained normal nutrition status, exited the program.

Success story

While our team was screening children for malnutrition, they met Anyango, a mother of four. Her youngest child, Hamza, was one month from his second birthday and was severely malnourished. The child was immediately taken into the program at the outreach centre. The team also visited Hamza's home to assess the underlying causes of malnutrition, such as poor feeding and hygiene practices.  They found that the children's grandmother, Nanyoli, was the primary caretaker while Anyango and her husband worked in the fields.

Anyango was counseled on how diet diversity and good hygiene practices can prevent further malnutrition. She was empowered with information during the regular seminars to take advantage of seasonal vegetables like spinach, amaranth and kale. She was also encouraged to alternate staple foods like rice, maize floor and wheat products. The team a also promoted locally available fruit like mango and banana along with the use of eggs regularly, which were locally available.  

After being in the program for four months, Hamza's nutritional status and also for other children in the program improved greatly thanks to the therapeutic foods, improved hygiene conditions, age-appropriate feeding, and a strengthened immune system.

Thanks to your support, we have been able to integrate approaches that continue to provide essential nutrition support for many of the malnourished children, just like Hamza.

Overview

Malnutrition prevents children from reaching their full physical and mental potential. Health and physical consequences of prolonged states of malnourishment among children are: delay in their physical growth and motor development; lower intellectual quotient (IQ), greater behavioural problems and deficient social skills; susceptibility to contracting diseases. There are many causes of malnutrition but most important of them are lack of awareness of balanced nutrition, proper sanitation and restricted access to quality health services. The understanding about nourishment and nutrition is very limited due to the lack of awareness and availability of information on nutrients.

Our intervention on assisting malnourished children covers the spectrum of taking care of 30 malnourished children and capacity building to parent and local community. In the community, for instance, our efforts help to build the capacity of mothers to support optimal infant and young child feeding and maternal dietary practices. This includes empowering mothers to know cheap alternatives sources of nutrients and mobilizing parent to seek pre/post natal care for immunization. Other ways include child health services, improving access to clean water, increasing knowledge on safer management of human waste (hygiene), improving hand-washing and other food preparatory practices. This goes along in promoting practices to prevent and/or address health concerns.

Activities

Feeding the children on balanced meals, nutritious meals and stimulating them through play continued to be part of the activities. During the reporting period, the intervention on malnourished children worked with 30 children at Kiandutu. 8 children were severely malnourished, 8 were moderately malnourished, 14 were mild, while 1 had stunted growth. One child who was severely malnourished was referred to the Area social worker for other interventions, where she was taken to the pediatrician and was given some medicine and food supplements from the government. 3 children were also de-wormed.

Seminars

As highlighted  many parent lack knowledge about nutrition and to counter this challenge we carried out seminars that were geared towards

• Increasing the knowledge of mothers and care takers about the importance of feeding preparation, frequency, amount and types of feeds so as to maintain a good nutrition status for their children.
• Increasing knowledge of mothers and care givers about the different food groups and how they can be combined to make a balance diet.
• Increase the knowledge of a balanced diet amongst the people.
• Improving the skills of mothers and care takers on how the locally available food is prepared and served in order to maintain its nutrition content and value with their full participation and involvement.

SUCCESS STORY OF JOYCE*

Joyce’s Mother is a teenage mother.  They live at her grandmother’s place.  The mother had undertaken a tailoring course but was unable to finish due to lack of fees and depended wholly on the grandmother for their needs.  Life was difficult for Joyce and her mother, as her grandmother is alcoholic.  When she got drunk, there was always a misunderstanding between the two of them.  This resulted to Joyce going without food as mostly there is no peace at home.

After assessment, Joyce was found to be moderately malnourished.  She weighed 6.7 kgs at an age of 1year 5 months.  Also she had a delayed milestone (she was not able to stand on time) she was enrolled in the program on 14^th Sept, 2016.

Joyce stayed in the program for 6 months.  The mother co-operated well and always attended seminars.  She was exited on 31^st March, 2017.  She weighed 9.0 Kgs and had fully recovered from a delayed milestone.  The mother had finished her training and is able to look for jobs and cater for her child.

Conclusion

We will continue mobilizing several stakeholders across various sectors to engage in reduction of under nutrition among children. We have been able to mobilize parents-mothers and grandmothers to actively engage in improving the feeding practices and thereby the nutritional status of children. Families are now concerned about the weight and progress of their children and are making efforts to seek treatment of illnesses.  

Appreciation

On behalf of our beneficiaries we would like to thank you for your continuous support. This has made it possible for Macheo to make an impact to the lives of the benefiting families positively.

Thank you.

The help given to Mary in the Macheo Malnourished Program

Mary is the only child of a teenage mother who was married at the age of 17, and whose husband abandoned her during pregnancy. She returned to the family home, but her parents were not willing to give support. Being jobless, she often went without food.

When she gave birth to Mary, she did not produce enough breast milk for the newborn baby. In the course of two months, baby Mary was introduced to solid foods, which caused stomach complications and therefore she was often on medication. Her health became affected.

Mary was enrolled in the Macheo malnutrition intervention program. She was moderately malnourished, weighing just 15.8 pounds at the age of 13 months and suffered from delayed milestones, being unable to stand. She had lost her appetite and her stomach had protruded due to intestinal worms. At the beginning of her care in the Macheo program Mary was de-wormed, introduced to an exercise of standing using parallel bars supported by the caregiver, and continued to be fed with daily nutritious meals. With time she started to show some progress. Her mother was also cooperative in attending seminars and nutritional counseling provided by Macheo and local health workers.

Finally Mary benefited from normal health. She attained her expected nutritional status, gained her normal weight and recovered from her delayed milestones. Mary was released from the program weighing 19.4 pounds. Her mother was also empowered with information and seed capital for a micro business, to enable her to sustain herself and Mary.

Without your incredible help, Mary may still not be eating much or absorbing key nutrients due to intestinal worms and be unable to walk due to lack of nutrition. Thank you so much for your donations.

Anne Thompson

President Macheo US