#iycf

Abdel Hamid works for Alima/Befen, an NGO that provides medical and nutritional care in Niger. He supervises and trains health and nutrition promoters who encourage optimal feeding practices for infants and young children in several villages in the commune of Kornaka. “I’m in a very privileged position”, he explains. Abdel Hamid used to work in the pediatric unit of the Dakoro Hospital that treats severely malnourished children. “I know what the hospital was like before the project started. There were many children coming late in critical conditions. These days when I visit the hospital, I see that the work we do to promote optimal feeding practices among mother is bearing its fruits. As a result far fewer children need to be treated for complicated acute malnutrition”.

Breastfeeding benefits both the mother and her newborn infant. Breast milk contains all the nutrients a baby needs for their first six months of life, and protects them from diarrhea and other common childhood diseases.

This week my supervisor and I were working in the rural areas of Masaiti District on the Copperbelt province. We worked in collaboration with Zambia Intergrated Systems Strengthening Programme (ZISSP) which is funded by USAID. Zissp in collaboration with the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health trained staff and community volunteers in community Infant and Young Child Feeding (C-IYCF) counselling course. The mentorship team included my supervisor, me , a nurse from one of the rural health centres in Masaiti and a nutritionist from ZISSP. Our job this week was to mentor and follow up on the trained health centre staff and community volunteers in IYCF . I had the opportunity to interview the community volunteers on IYCF activities. Unfortunately , couldn't get a video or audio because I was using my mother tongue, Lamba. We basically went through the C-IYCF activities with the community volunteers and staff like counselling on infant feeding (also in the context of HIV), Community Based Growth monitoring and Promotion ( CBGMP) just to mention two. IYCF is one of the health policies that Zambia is implementation with the help of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) like ZISSP. I learnt alot especially on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) which I will be able to share ! It was a wonderful week!

Some of the books I read through in week 2...