Predominantly populated by indigenous and minority groups, Kailash Rural Municipality still lacks many basic human needs for sustaining lives.
The marginalised communities, struck hard by poverty, have alarmingly low awareness of the importance of health, hygiene and sanitation. Hence, malnourishment has been a pressing issue for years now, among several other concerns.
Lack of access to nutritional food, poor feeding practices such as inadequate breastfeeding, absence of knowledge regarding nutritious food, poverty, and illiteracy are some of the main reasons for malnutrition.
According to data published by the District Public Health Office, more than 3000 children in the district are suffering from malnutrition. Specifically, Bharta and the Kalikatar wards of Kailash Rural Municipality of Makwanpur have the highest number of children with malnutrition. (Malnutrition and Health Outreach Camp Report – 2022 by SDA)
These findings aptly put the high prevalence of malnourishment among the children of Makwanpur district and the urgency with which SDA conducts camps to mitigate them. Therefore, under its Health Project, SDA comes up with a yearly malnutrition camp in different wards of Kailash Rural Municipality.
How does SDA mitigate malnutrition in Makwanpur?
As its project area, SDA runs different activities and programs under Education, Agriculture and Health to improve the lives of the Chepang community of Kailash Rural Municipality.
The health project is one of the three projects that have been Shangri-La Development Association’s focus since its inception. SDA works for the awareness and upliftment of health literacy in the community with the existing health structures of the government.
Usually conducted before the monsoon to benefit as many locals as possible, the camp’s targeted beneficiaries were children under ten. SDA moved forward to run the Malnutrition and Health Outreach Camp by assessing the accessibility, necessity and the number of children in the clusters soon after the Covid 19 cases began decreasing.
Thus it was time for the Shangri-La Development Association, Nutritional Rehabilitation Home (NRH), and Kailash Rural Municipality to join hands for the third time to conduct the Nutrition and Health Outreach Campaign on the 12th, 13th and 14th of March 2022.
Nutrition Rehabilitation Home (NRH) is a program under Nepal Youth Foundation, Nepal, a Non-government Organisation (NGO). NRH addresses the issues of nutrition, malnutrition, medical care, and overall the malnourished children of Nepal. According to NRH, 1 in 3 children suffer from stunting or chronic malnutrition.
Objectives of the Malnutrition and Health Outreach Camp
- To identify and reduce the malnutrition status of children under ten in Kailash Rural Municipality.
- To reduce U-5 mortality and morbidity rate associated with poor nutrition among children below the age of 10 in Kailash Rural Municipality.
- To educate the mothers/guardians on proper nutrition and hygiene.
- To assess the nutritional condition and provide health checkups, medicine, and counselling accordingly.
- To encourage the caretakers to visit NRH if their children are found significantly malnourished.
Who runs the camp?
Running camps in remote places is not an easy task and require much effort from start to end. A team of 21, constituting two paediatric doctors, six nurses, two ANM, eleven consultant volunteers and the SDA team, were actively involved in the camp.
In addition, local government authorities, health posts, Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs, school teachers, and ward chairpersons helped spread the word and bring children along to the camp location.
The first day of the camp was in Punya Devi Birthing centre- Ward 8, Bharta, the second day in Shree Basic School- ward 1, Barbhanjyang, and the third day in Shree Shanti Srijana Basic School ward 10, Khumaltar of Kailash Rural Municipality.
Steps attendees go through during the camp:
- Name Registration
- Height and Weight Measurement
- SD Score Checking
- OPD Check-Up
- Medicine and Lito Distribution
- Nutrition Education for Mothers and Guardians
- Counselling for Identified Malnourished Child
Among other things, Nutrition Education for Mothers and Guardians was to create awareness about the value of nutritional food for mothers and children. Moreover, it was about informing the mothers and the guardians on proper nutrition and food habits to prevent malnourishment through demonstration. The sessions were conducted multiple times each day based on the number of participants.
Furthermore, the first day of the outreach camp also entailed a short formal program, while on the morning of day three of camp, NRH folks gave a short session on HIV/AIDS to our hostel students before we left for Khumaltar. The session was conducted in Literacy Hall at SDA Literacy Home and entailed de-stigmatising HIV/AIDS. Students present at the session learnt correct information about HIV/AIDS, such as its causes and preventive measures.
The NRH team provided medications to 213 children according to their health issues as prescribed by the doctors during the camp. Of the total screened, 82 children got diagnosed with Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) cases and 6 with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
The camp had 452, 726 and 585 children under ten from the 12th to 14th of March, respectively. A record number of 1763 children got screened combining all three days of the campaign. And out of 1763, 1331 were from the Dalit community, and others belonged to Chepang, Tamang, Madhesi, and Chhetri communities. Suffice to say, the number of people presented was as estimated and satisfactory.
On an important note, it was the highest number of screening recorded out of all three days of camp by NRH until now.
Referral Service for Malnourished Children in Collaboration with NRH
After the camp, if the parents agree, the malnourished children are taken to NRH, located at Sunakothi, Lalitpur, for further treatment with no charges and return home once they are healthy.
After the camp was over, SDA referred the discovered cases of MAM and SAM to Nutrition Rehabilitation Home in Sunakothi, Lalitpur. SDA bears transportation and logistics expenses while NRH handles the rehabilitation part.
The referred children then get admitted. During their stay in NRH, the parents also get to learn about nutritional food habits, methods of cooking and eating food, sanitation, and proper caretaking of the children. Also, the experts at NRH take measurements of the children and provide counselling to the guardians daily.
A total of 28 children with cases of SAM and MAM got referred to NRH for nutritional care. They stayed there with their mothers/guardians to regain nutritional status and later got discharged. SDA will be referring more in coordination with NRH soon.
Behind the Camp On A Grand Organisational Scheme
SDA also informs the local government bodies and health posts about the cases admitted to the rehabilitation home so that the government establishes a proper follow up from their side. Now, local health posts oversee following up since it falls under their duties to take care of the people in the community.
Should anyone from its project area approach, SDA is always ready to refer cases of malnutrition from its project area to NRH after a health checkup and verification by the health staff of SDA.
On top of that, SDA has been implementing community development projects, including the one-time support project in 3 wards of Kailash Rural Municipality, since 2016. And this is the third camp conducted by SDA coordinating with NRH after 2019 and 2021.
The camp this year was a success and effective in identifying hidden malnutrition cases in different areas of Kailash Rural Municipality. The local people and the government bodies responded positively as well.
SDA team expresses heartfelt gratitude to the Nepal Youth Foundation (NRH), Kailash Rural Municipality (KRM), ward officers, all the SDA staff, SDA EC members, SA Switzerland, GA Govinda Association, FCHVs members, Health Post Staffs, and mothers group for their valuable time and contribution to the campaign.