In order to overcome child malnutrition in Turkana, continuous and integral actions are needed to intervene by providing food to the youngest children, attending to their medical needs and implementing water supply programs that allow training in agriculture, food production and the survival of livestock. Actions that are also complemented with improved access to work and education to create local human capital.

It is not possible to reduce child malnutrition in the area with sporadic food supply interventions, there is a need for permanent networks that encourage community commitment and allow action both in times of humanitarian emergency and in the prevention of malnutrition in times when drought is not so persistent. The high percentage of children with good nutritional status where such networks and infrastructure are in place demonstrates this.

Expected Results

• To guarantee daily feeding, twice a day, to 80 children under 6 years of age at risk of malnutrition due to food shortages in their homes from Lowa community.
• To met the health and medical needs of 80 children under 6 years of age.
• To form 1 committee of volunteer mothers for the daily operation of 11 Maternal and Infant Centres.

Activities

• To buy food (in Kitale 440 kms from the mission) and distribute it monthly to the LOWA Mother and Child Centre.
• To provide two meals a day to 80 children under 6 years of age.
• To equip with basic kitchen utensils.
• Nutritional and medical follow-up for children,
• To carry out appropriate educational activities for early childhood.
• To train 4 volunteer mothers who take care of the children every day and make possible the daily functioning of the centre.

¿What do we need?

• Food (maize, beans, rice, oil, soya, sorghum, sugar)
• Transport of food from Kitale (440 kms) to the mission and monthly distribution
• People for unloading, milling, mixing and storage
• 1 Driver
• 1 Child Care Agent for the follow-up
• Equipment (Kitchen utensils)
• Training of Volunteer mothers
• Nutritional supplements for children with malnutrition
• Maintenance jobs (plumbing, repairs, etc)
• Support for volunteer mothers
• Logistics, administration and coordination in a remote and difficult-to-access place

Objetivo de la causa

To improve the nutrition, health and hygiene of children under 6 years of age in the community of Lowa through a permanent network of support.

Viabilidad de la causa

The Mother and Child Centres (MCC) coordinated from Kokuselei Catholic Mission seek to improve the nutrition of more than 800 children under the age of 6 from 35 communities in North Turkana, through two daily meals, nutritional monitoring, health care and basic equipment and infrastructures for proper food preparation and hygiene of children. This project seeks support for 1 of the 11 children's centres currently in operation.

These childcare centres are based on the concern of all the families in the area for the hunger and diseases of their young children, two of the most serious consequences of the periodic and prolonged droughts in Turkana. Their concern and desire for improvement have permanently boosted their participation and commitment to the prevention of malnutrition, the main problem of children in this part of the Horn of Africa.

Therefore, from the beginning of these nutritional centres when they were set up under a tree and with only one pot to feed hundreds of children of nomadic herders, the parents and the MCSPA decided to work together to make it possible for them to function. Each year, the volunteer mothers of the committee take care of more than 80 children daily, wash them, prepare their food, feed them and help with referral and follow-up when they are sick. While the MCSPA contributes the food and supplies, the rest of the parents help maintain the fence, warehouse and kitchen.

All the parents, the volunteer mothers and the MCSPA are aware of the great responsibility of each of the activities of this project, without which they would not be able to ensure that hundreds of children can eat every day. Children whose usual diet is insufficient for their proper growth (a single meal at night commonly based on the milk of their animals), and even scarce in times of drought when many children go several days without eating, endangering their lives.

Investing efforts so that the youngest children of this remote side of Kenya who need food and health care, is the foundation to move towards preschool education and, therefore, towards a more dignified future for all families in this area of Turkana.