Celebrating 30 years! - Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and ...

Child Nutrition and Wellbeing ProgramThe Child Nutrition and WellbeingProgram provides early interventionand prevention services to childrenwho have been diagnosed as failure tothrive or who are considered to be ‘atrisk’ from a health or welfare perspectiveand who are aged 0-5 years, and to theirfamilies. Our service provides intensivecase management, nutrition andparental education, advocacy and healthpromotion.Our service continues to have a strongpresence throughout the NPY region,with five teams working across the 26communities. This year the Programcollaborated with schools, stores andyouth programs to run nutrition educationworkshops and promotions. Theseincluded:• Fortnightly workshops in twoNgaanyatjarra schools over a schoolterm. Each fortnight these workshopsfocused on nutrition and the body, andhow different parts of the body rely ongood nutrition.• Papulankutja Artists (aka BlackstoneArt Centre, WA) ‘Blackstone festival.’This year the festival focused on thetheme ‘healthy eating’ and the programvolunteered to provide workshopsencouraging healthy food and cooking.• Attendance at the Warakurna KungkaNights, an activity run weekly by the Shireof Ngaanyatjarraku Youth DevelopmentProgram at the Warakurna communityWomen’s Centre. Kungka Nights is aimedat teenage girls and young women, 13to 20 years of age, and facilitates arange of activities using topics suchas health, beauty, cooking, keepingactive and strengthening culture tosupport social and emotional wellbeing.The Child Nutrition and Well-beingProgram provides a combination ofhealth promotion and health educationstrategies aimed at young mothers toensure optimum nutrition for babies andyoung children.• A Nutrition stall at the WarburtonYouth Expo. The Expo is an annual eventorganised by the Ngaanyatjarraku ShireYouth Program. It is aimed at school agedchildren with the focus on healthy lifestyleSwimming near Kiwirrkurra, WA.skills. This is the fourth consecutiveyear that the Warburton Youth Expo hasrun. The Child Nutrition and WellbeingProgram has been involved with YouthExpo every year since it commenced.• One- pot cooking lessons with seniorstudents of Warburton High School aspart of the Healthy Life Skills programthat the school has been running. Theseworkshops were a joint collaborationbetween Ngaanyatjarra Housing,Warburton Remote School and the ChildNutrition and Well-being Program.• A lesson with students from remotecommunities at Yirara College AliceSprings who were learning about fat.What is fat? What are the bad effectsof too much? Why does the body needsome? The aim was to learn about goodfats and bad fats, learn how to read foodlabels, practice reading food labels andmake healthy food choices.• Monthly morning tea sessions at theWarburton WA Playgroup. The aim ofthese sessions was to engage withmothers and children in a setting differentfrom the usual Child Nutrition Workshopswhich are targeted at families withchildren who are failure to thrive.The Child Nutrition and WellbeingProgram also delivered 207 nutritionworkshops to a total of 1680 participantsacross the NPY region. We providedintensive support and long-term casemanagement to 120 children and theirfamilies, and have assisted a further265 families with emergency brokerage,such as food, clothing and emergencyaccommodation.Three staff members attended a ‘PickyEaters’ workshop, a Sequential OralSensory (SOS) Approach to Feeding,hosted by the Children’s NutritionResearch Centre in August 2009. Thisworkshop is a trans-disciplinary programfor assessing and treating children withfeeding difficulties and weight/growthproblems from birth to 18 years, witha focus on children from 6 months to6 years of age. It integrates posture,sensory, motor, behavioural/learning,medical, and nutritional factors tocomprehensively evaluate and managechildren with feeding/growth problems.The Child Nutrition and WellbeingProgram was also recognised at the‘Excellence in Indigenous Health Awards,’hosted by Criterion Conferences inMarch 2010, for its outstanding work inMaternal and Child Health.We continue to advocate for theneeds of children and their families inthe NPY region at both regional andnational levels. Deputy Co-ordinatorLiza Balmer continues to representNPYWC on the Central AustralianChild Welfare Reference Group, theNT Families and Children AdvisoryCouncil and is continuing to contributeto the Development of a National ChildProtection framework.Liza BalmerDeputy Co-ordinator12 NPY Women’s Council (Aboriginal Corporation) Annual Report 2009–2010