Nutrition Support for Orphans' Education Center

During this period under review, we focused our implementation on both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions that address the complex causes of malnutrition in the rural communities of Uganda especially in Apac and Ibanda districts. After realizing that the underlying causes of malnutrition have to do majorly with household food insecurity and with unhealthy environment like socio-cultural, economic factors among others, our efforts were put on training women to have decision-making power over the household income and nutrition, because when they succeed in this area, they are more likely than men to spend on food and healthcare, particularly for their children. We specifically facilitated women in production diversification which enhanced their production of nutrient-dense crops and small-scale livestock. Additionally, we also built the capacity of women to improve food processing, storage and preservation which help to retain nutrients, reduce crop losses, and decrease the time it takes to prepare nutritious meals, supported them to expand markets for nutritious foods and market access for vulnerable groups as well as incorporating nutrition promotion and education in the program in the community. We are happy that apart from the  help  given to households to promote nutrition among their homes to benefit their children, the program has also enabled households to break poverty cycle through this process of empowerment

Malnutrition is still a widespread problem among Ugandan rural communities like elsewhere in the world. According to the 2018 Global Nutrition Report , 150.8 million children under five are stunted, 50.5 million are wasted, and 38.3 million are overweight. 20 million babies are born with low birth weight each year. One-third of all women of reproductive age are anemic –a debilitating condition caused primarily by micronutrient deficiencies.  (Development Initiatives 2018a) Furthermore, it should ne noted that  malnutrition in early childhood can irreversibly damage physical and cognitive development, affecting a child’s capacity to learn and succeed in school, increasing a person’s risk of infection and disease, and generally diminishing performance and earning potential throughout the lifetime. Therefore Nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions greatly help to mitigate these problems. We are happy that during this period under report, we directly engaged women from 89 households and impacted lives of 178 children through our work.

We are indebted to all our supporters who without their generous donations, we would have been here to write on these accomplishments. We say Thank You, ‘Asante Sana’ and at the same time request you to remain supporting us as we make a big difference in the lives of children

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