Vit A supplements give hope for better child health at Lirangwe
The supplements boost immunity and protect babies from preventable diseases
Sellina Nkhoma, 26, arrived at Lirangwe Health Centre in Blantyre carrying her child on the back, seeming dejected and tired.
She had just walked for about two hours from Makina Village to come to attend a regular under-five clinic. Every month Selina brings her one-year and seven-month-old child, Steven, to the clinic for medical check-ups and immunisation.
As she lined up with other mothers to get her child weighed, one health worker couldn’t help but approach her to find out what was troubling her. It was Steven’s health.
“I am not happy with the health of my child. He is not well. He is losing weight. This really makes me sad,” said Nkhoma, who sells tomatoes and charcoal on a small scale to earn a living. Her husband works as cook in Zomba district.
The last time Nkhoma brought Steven to the clinic was a month ago, when the health workers diagnosed him with moderate malnutrition. This time, his nutrition assessment showed he had not significantly improved.
“He has been refusing to eat in the past days. He has no appetite for other foods apart from breastmilk,” said Nkhoma. “As a parent, I am sad to be eating while my child is not. I want my child to eat well.”
Nkhoma received corn-soya blend when she visited the hospital in April, and she was due to receive another pack of the flour the following week. The fortified blended food is provided to improve the nutritional and health status of under-five children who are moderately malnourished as part of the supplementary feeding programme.
“I will continue to give him corn-soya blend porridge mixed with vegetables and other foods so that he can improve and get better. I want my child to be healthy and not be sick,” said Nkhoma.
On this day, Steven also received his Vitamin A supplement, made possible with support from UNICEF in partnership with German development bank KfW. The supplements are given to children every six months as a low-cost intervention to strengthen their immune systems, reduce the risk of blindness and improve the survival of the children.
“Steven was very happy to take the supplement. He liked it so much. I will continue to feed him with food from all the six different food groups so that when I come to the clinic again next month, he should be better,” said Nkhoma, who has two children – the other one, Kettie, who is five years old and in Standard 1 at a primary school.
Steven is not the only one who received the Vitamin A supplement on the day. Mercy Phiri’s one-year and three-month-old child, Elnan, also got his Vitamin A supplement.
“It is important for my child to receive these supplements to have good health,” said Phiri. “The supplements are helping my child not to get sick easily. This gives me peace of mind and enables me to concentrate on my small business to support my family.”
Health Surveillance Assistant (HSA), Getrude Ng’oma, said her goal is to ensure every child in her catchment area gets the vaccines and micronutrient supplements they need to stay healthy.
In my catchment area, no child is missing Vitamin A supplements. I regularly check in the records to see those who are not coming to the clinic and follow up on them in their homes to give them the supplements and encourage their mothers to bring them to the clinic next time.
In April alone, she said 357 children received the Vitamin A supplements from the health centre. There are more than 5,800 under-five children in the entire catchment area of the health centre.
Together with other HSAs, Ng’oma says they are making every effort to reach every child with Vitamin A supplements, including through mass immunisation campaigns.
“We have observed that children who get Vitamin A supplements don’t have eye problems and have good immunity against diseases. Integrating the supplements in the route immunisation programme is helping us to achieve our goal of reaching every child with Vitamin A,” she said.
For Nkhoma and Phiri, they are hopeful that the supplements give their babies a chance to survive and develop to be strong members of their families.
“When you give birth to a child, you expect them to grow up well and develop so that they can help you in future. But when the child gets sick easily, you worry that maybe the child will die. This is why I don’t miss the under-five clinics. I want my child to survive and be healthy,” said Nkhoma.
