We see tomorrow in today’s child

Action on the ground
Case study
the project period
Over the past four years, the project
has progressed enormously in terms of
community engagements and awareness
in the community, along with building
capacities of 1319 frontline Health
Workers in two interventions blocks
to make scheduled HBNC home visits,
enhancing knowledge of mothers and
community members on Maternal New
Born Child Health and Nutrition (MNCH),
strengthening community support groups
and community based governance as well
as building skills of frontline health workers
to improve village health and nutrition days
community health service delivery and leads
towards sustainability.
As a result of the intervention,
Government of Jharkhand has
recommended the HBNC to Community
Health Division of Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare (MoHFW). We are one of
the committee members at NHM, Jharkhand
and supported Government of Jharkhand to
develop and roll out Jharkhand new born
action plan. Over the past three years, the
project has progressed tremendously in
terms of building the capacity of ASHAs/
Sahiyas to make HBNC visits, enhancing
knowledge of mothers and community
members on Maternal and Neonatal Health
and Nutrition (MNHN), strengthening
community support groups.
Some Highlights:
• Over 1300 front line health workers have
been capacitated
• Institutional deliveries have increased to
79.66% and 77.44% in Saraiyahat and Nala
block respectively in 2015
• The number of new-borns receiving
HBNCs has almost doubled
Reducing prevalence of child
malnutrition
Under nutrition and micronutrient
deficiencies are major public health
challenges in West Bengal creating a vicious
cycle of malnutrition across generations.
According to NFHS 4, one third of the
children under 5 years are under weight
(31%), 32.5% stunted and 20.3% wasted.
This definitely reflects that the children are
not experiencing adequate growth as per
their age. Poor knowledge and practices
related to child feeding, inadequate facilities
for sanitation and hygiene along with other
social determinants related to gender
imbalances have carried adverse impact on
the child health. About half of the children
miss exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6
months (47%) and only 23% of the children
between 6-23 months receive adequate diet.
Nearly 7.8 million people (38.6% of total
population of West Bengal) still follow open
I aspire each day
that all children
grow up healthy
and enjoy a happy
childhood
Sabina was born in Magrahat of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Her mother
could not see the face of the new born as she died while giving birth to the child. In early
years Sabina had no one to attend to her. She would not even get proper food. She was
growing up neglected, malnourished and very frail. When she was 8 months old, Sabina was
adopted by Firoza Bibi and Gora Sekh of Noorpur.
When she was brought to Noorpur, our teams identified her as a child with severe acute
malnutrition (SAM). Sabina’s life was in danger. The community facilitator advised Sabina’s
mother to follow proper feeding practice for the child and also asked her to introduce
nutrimix, a low cost supplementary nutrition for children. The community facilitator also
referred Sabina for health camp organised under the initiative steered by Save the Children.
The child received thorough health check-up and counselling from doctor and nutritionist.
The field team also ensured that Sabina would receive all age appropriate immunisation
from Government Health Facility. With special attention to Infant and young child feeding
practices and care of the family and regular follow up from the CF, Sabina’s health started
improving. The mother feeds her timely and maintains cleanliness and hygienic conditions.
Every generation of
children offers mankind
the possibility of rebuilding
his ruin of a world
28 Save the children
annual report 29