Community-based nutrition center launched in Sistan and Balouchistan
Hessam, a 9 month old baby, gurgles appreciation for the veggie soup that her mother is giving him. So does 3-year-old Nazanin and couple of other young children in the room. This love-fest is not a kindergarten, it is a room at a health center in Chabahar, in the southeastern province of Sistan and Blouchistan, Iran’s poorest region, on the border with Pakistan. Here, twice a week, mothers and children get nutrition tips. And children eat healthy food. The goal of this community-based nutrition project, a collaboration between the Ministry of Health and UNICEF’s Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) is to promote health and nutrition for under 6-year-old children living in poor regions. Indeed, poverty is one reason that nearly 20% of children in this area are underweight. “When I came to this health center to vaccinate my son, they told me I could use nutrition classes on Mondays and Wednesdays” said, 18-year-old Sa’emeh, mother of 9-month-old Hessam.” I find it very useful; we also have practical sessions in which we learn how to cook a healthy and nutritionally strong food for our children”. A few miles from the town, in a small village where signs of seven years of drought and shortage of water are visible, a group of children in colorful traditional clothes sit in a room, singing and working to figure out the last piece of their puzzles. These children, mostly between 3 to 5 years old, could have been out playing or following their goats or even at home baby-sitting younger brothers and sisters. Yet thanks to joint efforts by UNICEF and the State Welfare Organization, they can spend their day in the Rural Child Care Center(RCCC) and improve their social skills and get access to pre-school education.
“We’re so happy our children are here,” said Fatemeh, a mother whose three-year-old daughter is at the center. “Before these rural kindergartens were set up here, our children would be home until the age of seven, when they would go to primary school and many faced with problems understanding Farsi, but now they learn quite a lot” “The early years of a child’s life are quite important and determining,” said Saeed Asaei, UNICEF’s IECD project officer.” That’s why an integrated plan for the physical, mental, and nutritional development of children is regarded as vital.” UNICEF supported the government establish the RCCCs in four districts of Sistan and Balouchistan province including Nikshahr, Sarbaz, Khash and Chabahar. “UNICEF, thank you, healthy nutrition, healthy food, no more junk food” is part of a children choir to welcome UNICEF and government team upon their arrival in Mokht village near Nikshahr. The village’s local preacher, Mowlavi, thanked the government and UNICEF for improving the health and nutrition situation of children and urged families to pay attention to birth control. Religious leaders are effective and helpful in getting the message across to members of the community, especially in small towns and villages, where they enjoy people’s trust and support in many issues. Iran’s government operates 5,000 RCCCs throughout the country. Yet the country has more than 70,000 villages. So more centers are needed. UNICEF’s goal is that in the near future all Iranian children, including those in the most out of reach rural areas have access to basic services to improve their early childhood.
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