Nutrition, Afghanistan
Operation Mercy in Afghanistan runs a program training women in the community to become health and nutrition promoters. This program empowers women to voluntarily serve their communities, working with their neighbors to identify malnutrition and refer malnourished children to our nutrition site at the Polyclinic.
One of these nutrition promoters, Zarlasht* (name changed), shares that during the 10 weeks of receiving nutrition lessons, she visited 12 households every week. On each visit, she would pass on the lessons she had learned in her training and assess the children for signs of malnutrition.
In one household, she identified both a pregnant woman and her 18-month-old child as being malnourished, so she referred them to the Operation Mercy nutrition site at the Polyclinic.
Zarlasht explains:
“I asked the mother to go to the polyclinic, but she was afraid to go alone, so I accompanied her. The Operation Mercy nutrition staff treated us well. They did a full nutrition screening, and although the child was weak, the screening showed she was on the verge of being malnourished, but not enough to be admitted into the program for food supplements. I decided to help the child myself by using the nutrition lessons I had received in the training. Every day, I went to their house and provided nutrition advice to the mother on how to make more nutritious food for her child. All these valuable lessons came from the training and food demonstrations we had in our group. I am so thankful to Operation Mercy for empowering me to help other women in my community in such simple but effective ways.”
Maternal and Child Nutrition and Health
In Afghanistan we have had the privilege of running a health programme in a number of communities where we train men and women on essential elements of nutrition and health during pregnancy and in the early formative years of a child’s life.
Health and Nutrition Promoters
Operation Mercy in Afghanistan runs a program training women in the community to become health and nutrition promoters. This program empowers women to voluntarily serve their communities,
I Am Stronger
Now we eat vegetables at every meal, I am stronger, I can do my housework and take care of my children and a sick member of our family.
Perseverance in Health
Two months later, Serah was improving from the malnutrition.
Success Story
Soon Mohammed was back to a normal weight and Farzana was delighted to see her son playing again, standing and moving, and having an appetite.
Proper Nutrition For Children
Malnutrition continues to increase across Afghanistan. The United Nations now reports 3.2 million children in Afghanistan face acute malnutrition. We expect this to worsen over the winter as the bitter cold forces many families to divert part of their funds towards heating instead of food.