Mali's nutrition champions
Meet the nutrition champions who, with thanks to generous support from Canada, are helping to prevent malnutrition in their villages.
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In villages across central Mali women wearing tan coloured aprons are busy sharing their knowledge and skills with mothers. On the front of their aprons is written what could be a code word for malnutrition prevention ‘GSAN’. It means Support Group for Nutrition Activities (GSAN is the acronym in French), and support is exactly what they give to parents in their villages.
N’gnèlè Mariko, 29 years old, is more than just a member of the local GSAN. She is an educator, an inspiration, and a guardian of the future of her village.
It is thanks to women like her that Ziembougou village in Sikasso Region is witnessing a tangible evolution towards a future where every family is armed with the knowledge and tools to raise their children in a healthy environment that is conducive to their development.
N’gnèlè Mariko uses picture books to explain concepts linked to preventing malnutrition – such as exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and handwashing with soap. GSAN members all have a kit that they carry with them for their home visit that includes such books that help them to explain nutrition prevention measures.
Assitan Sebou, 22 years old, is showing Aichata Sebo, 25 years old and mother of six-month-old Bintou Kamien, an easy way to check her child’s nutritional status. Assitan is a GSAN member in Maraki village in Mopti Region, and they organize regular sessions on nutrition in the village.
Assitan is using what is known as a MUAC tape, and green means baby Bintou is not malnourished. The tapes are predominately used to measure the upper arm circumference of children but also that of pregnant women, helping identify malnutrition. There are different types of MUAC tape and some, like this one, are colour coded (red, yellow, and green) to indicate the nutritional status of a child or adult.
A few metres away in the same village, another GSAN member, Fatoumata Kamien, is doing a cooking demonstration. What’s she making? A thick local porridge that is enriched with vitamins and micronutrients.
This porridge is a nutritious meal to which vegetables or meat can also be added for variety, and that can be given in addition to breastfeeding after a baby turns six months. Across Mali you can find GSAN members demonstrating how to make this nutritious porridge and then serving it in coloured cups to young children.
Bintou Kamien, six months, is enjoying the first few mouthfuls of nutritious enriched porridge given by her mother Aichata Sebo following Maraki Village’s GSAN nutrition demonstration.
Several hundred kilometres away in Sikasso, Mariam Traore serves her GSAN’s enriched porridge to an eager group of infants and toddlers.
‘These are more than just cooking classes, they are nutrition awareness and prevention sessions,’ says Mariam Traore. Her GSAN meets every week to carry out community activities.
The impact of the activities is evident and reflected on the smiling faces of two-year-old twins Alassane and Sinè Berthé.
‘My twins had nutrition-related problems, but thanks to the fortified porridge and the advice of the Nutrition Support Group, they are doing well,’ says their mother Hawa.
In Mali UNICEF-supported nutrition programmes are made possible thanks to the financial support of Canada. Global Affairs Canada is providing this nutrition support through the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) which is a UNICEF-led financing mechanism designed to enable the sustainable scale-up of policies, programmes, practices and supplies to address malnutrition in children and women.
