Issue

Issue

Action

Action

Impact

Impact

Micronutrient supplementation

Micronutrient supplementation

Nutritional surveillance

Nutritional surveillance

Supplementary feeding and breastfeeding

Supplementary feeding and breastfeeding

 

Action

A woman feeds a child in 2001. UNICEF has been providing training at health centres to mothers on improved infant feeding and dietary practices.

UNICEF’s Nutrition Programme in Somalia is comprised of three projects:
- Controlling Micronutrient Deficiency Disorders
- Improving Feeding Practices, and 
-  Selective Feeding

UNICEF is training health workers to conduct regular growth monitoring and to carry out nutritional surveillance, and is supporting the development of community-based maternal and child nutrition packages to improve feeding practices.

The programme supports the development of a micronutrient policy framework within health sector reform, as well as developing information materials for families.

The building blocks of the family training are:
- Increasing the understanding of the importance of a balanced diet,
- The need to monitor a child’s growth
- A general understanding of the various factors affecting children’s overall health and growth including common illnesses, hygiene and sanitation practices and the use of clean water.

An estimated 700,000 children aged between 6 and 59 months of age received two capsules of vitamin A during the two rounds of National Immunization Days (NIDs) in 2003.

Younger children in Somalia are learning more about health issues in the classroom as UNICEF has incorporated basic messages about health, hygiene and nutrition into the standard school curriculum.

Based on the results of nutritional surveillance, programmes for the supplementary and therapeutic feeding of malnourished children are started and supported by UNICEF and its health non-governmental partners.

These groups continue to provide vitamin A supplements to children under five, and iron and folic acid supplements to pregnant women.

Combating chronic malnutrition

The problem of malnutrition can only be tackled if communities understand its root causes.

In areas where longer-duration activities are possible, such as Somalia’s northern regions, UNICEF is supporting the training of community health workers and traditional birth attendants to become ‘change agents’ in their communities.