SAVE LIVES OF 600 MALNOURISHED CHILDREN IN UGANDA

1. Introduction

The opportunity of saving the lives of 600 malnourished children is progressing well as a key project at CFU. Malnutrition cases are still present in Uganda due to the high levels of poverty and high prices of foodstuffs in the urban areas as well as scarcity of food in the rural areas.  The main aim of Child and Family Foundation Uganda's (CFU) efforts is to solve the above challenge by delivering nutrition-specific interventions to all the intended beneficiary communities and individual households.

In the last Quarter, we trained more 6 Health workers on how they can screen for Malnutrition and they have greatly done the role during the home visits and community outreaches. These have increased the coverage of the project and the efforts felt by the underserved communities. Local community leaders have also taken part in the struggle by informing their people to embrace all the nutrition-specific interventions brought by CFU. 2 community dialogues were made in 3 divisions of Kampala district to discuss with the community leaders and residents how best we can solve the problem of Malnutrition in their areas.  

A total of 26 integrated community outreaches were conducted in the communities. Services included; Nutrition Assessments, Immunization, nutrition education, Vitamin A supplementation and deworming, and treatment of common sicknesses like Diarrhea which can lead to Malnutrition and death. We also worked with the top Health leadership in the districts to support health service-related activities.  A total of 7080 children were reached with the interventions   

 SUCCESS STORY

Twinowe (not real name), a 13-month-old male child was referred to CFU medical center by one of the community health workers trained by CFU in the previous quarter. This child had been passing out a watery stool for 4 days and her Mid-upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) was yellow.  The child was brought to CFU medical center for further assessments where the child was examined and diagnosed with Moderate Acute Malnutrition(MAM) and acute watery diarrhea.

On Assessment.

1. Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC): 12.2cm (Y)
2. Weight: 7.8kg
3. Length: 71.8cm
4. Respiratory rate of 48b/min

Interventions

1. Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) was given.
2. Zinc tablets
3. Blood smear to rule out Malaria.
4. Nutrition counseling message with the following topics:

• Ensuring proper Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) by boiling drinking water and its safe Storage.
• Maintaining proper sanitation at home to prevent diarrhea and other related diseases.
• Preparation of a balanced diet with locally available cheap foods
• Enriching home meals such as porridges.

During the follow-up visits as scheduled, Twinowe’s watery stool was subsidized, and he started improving gradually. Gaining weight as follows (7.8 kg, 7.9, 8.0, 8.2, and 8.4kg respectively) and the MUAC also increased (12.2 cm, 12.2, 12.4, 12.6cm Green, and 12.7cm respectively). With the above progress, Twinowe was then discharged from the Outpatient Therapeutic Centre (OTC), to be followed up by the trained Community health workers in-home visits.                                    

 Achievements

• Many children were reached with nutrition-specific interventions.
• The trained health workers started screening and referring malnourished cases for treatment.

 Challenges

• Some clients cannot afford even the cheap foodstuffs as taught during nutrition education.

 Lessons Learnt.

• The involvement of community leaders increases the effectiveness of the project.
• Timely referral for early interventions saves the client's life.
• Strengthening the Home visits ensures more clients are reached by the community health workers.

Conclusion

• Generally, a lot of children are benefiting from the project and many lives are being saved during the interventions. Thanks to the GlobalGiving community for the support and more is needed to make the project more successful.

1. Introduction

The saving lives of 600 malnourished children project are one of the forefront projects at CFU as malnutrition is still a challenge in Uganda, especially in the underserved urban communities and deep rural areas. Child and Family Foundation Uganda (CFU) is still working on Tooth and Nail to deliver different nutrition interventions to the people with an aim of reducing cases of Malnutrition and their occurrences.

Health worker Training, community dialogues, and community outreaches are being conducted to involve the health facilities, community leaders, and government health focal persons in the saving of children from malnutrition. From the training, the health workers who were trained are working hand in hand with CFU to screen for malnutrition among children and their households. 3 stakeholder training was conducted in the last quarter to build capacity and teach them how to screen and manage malnutrition cases in their areas. A total of  48 health workers from 21 health centers, together with more than 50 Community Health Workers were trained in the two-day training.

In the last quarter, we were able to carry out 24 community outreaches which were integrated with services like nutrition education, Food demonstrations, Vitamin A supplementation, and deworming.  We also screened for malnutrition, 32 (16M & 16F) cases of malnutrition were found after the screening.  Among these, 6 had Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM)   whereas 26 had Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM). All these cases were managed until got well and were discharged to the community to be followed up by the community health workers.

SUCCESS STORY

Baby Kato, a 9-month-old male twin was found by the community health workers during the door-to-door home visits activities. After assessments, he was referred to our Medical Center. At the medical center, His mother reported that with a low appetite, his son was not growing so well compared to the twin brother and other children of the same age. She reported that the child is so small and appears unwell.

On examination, baby Kato was looking sick and weak.

1. Respiratory rate of 45b/min
2. Weight: 6.4kg
3. Length: 64.5cm
4. Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC): 11.6cm (Y)

Upon assessment, he was found with Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM)

Interventions

1. Blood smear for Malaria was positive.
2. He was put on antimalarials to treat malaria.
3.  Nutrition counseling message was given on the subsequent visits with the following topics:

• The factors to consider when complementary feeding.
• Giving extra meals to the twins, especially the sick one.
• Preparation of a triple mix locally known as kitoobero.
• Preparation of a balanced diet with locally available cheap foods
• Maintaining proper sanitation at home to prevent diarrhea and other related diseases.
• Enriching home meals such as porridges.

For the follow-up visits as scheduled by the Medical Officer, baby Kato healed from malaria and gradually started improving, gaining weight as follows (6.4Kg, 6.5, 6.8, 6.9, 7.2, and 7.4kg respectively ) and the MUAC also increased (11.6 cm, 11.7, 11.9, 12.2, 12.3 and 12.5cm respectively). Baby Kato was then discharged from the Outpatient Therapeutic Centre (OTC), to be followed up by the Community wealth workers.     

 Achievements

• Children who were found malnourished were treated until they got well.
• More health workers were trained in the assessment and management of malnutrition.

 Challenges

• Staff turnover in many of the health facilities, which makes some trained health workers leave the project area hence affecting the project.

 Lessons Learnt.

• Training and conducting Continuous Medical Education (CME) always remind health workers of their role in fighting malnutrition.
• Involving community leaders in any project leads to its success since they mobilize people to attend and get the services offered to them.
•  Home visits ensure client follow-up in the community and reduce lost follow-up.

Conclusion

• The project is running so well and communities in the project area are gaining from it, all thanks to the GlobalGiving community for the continued support to the children of Kampala and Uganda at large.