A malnourished, nursing mother in Afghanistan listened and applied what she had learned from her community promoter and utilized the help from the clinic for her 1 1/2-year-old baby.
She says: "The first thing I did was to start drinking water more, 8-12 glasses a day. I was so weak before that I could hardly stand and often when I tried, I would faint and be confused for 1-2 hours afterwards. I couldn’t take care of the housework or my children well and I was so weak. Then I started cooking kidney beans with our meals and adding vegetables to every meal from my husband's cart, who is a vegetable seller. I told him how important it is, and he agreed. We can't afford fruit, but I learned we can get vitamins from these vegetables too. 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.”
She has seen all-around changes in her family. For our team, this story is a success story, and we are delighted with how much the woman has learned and how she is applying it to herself and her family!
The goals of our nutrition project in Afghanistan are to prevent morbidity and mortality from malnutrition through increased access to treatment for moderate acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months and pregnant and lactating women, increased awareness of malnutrition, and increased capacity of communities to bring about behavioural change and prevent malnutrition.
