A village to nourish a child: FHI360 community structures provide nutrition for children in Borno

The Save the Child Initiative, in collaboration with the Society for Women Development and Empowerment in Nigeria, is working to ensure that expectant mothers receive proper nutrition during pregnancy so they can deliver healthy babies. The initiative provides iron and folic acid supplements, nutrition counseling, hosts antenatal clinics, and even travels door-to-door to provide education and care to those in need.

Child mortality is a global problem that can be reduced by increasing breastfeeding rates; however, many mothers are either under too much cultural pressure, need to work, or cannot lactate enough milk. Brazil has devised an education program to help mothers breastfeed and has also created milk banks, through which mothers can donate excess milk to mothers who cannot produce. Additionally, Brazil offers paid maternity leave for mothers who have time to breastfeed and provide better health for their bodies as well as their new babies.

Haiti suffered tremendous losses after the 2010 earthquake, exacerbating the devastation in an already impoverished country. In 2015, agriculture in Haiti is a growing business backed by the United States’ Feed the Future Initiative. Nourishment and health of mothers and babies has also improved with the encouragement of breastfeeding and sweet potatoes.

mDoc's Garden in a Box initiative distributes biodegradable seed kits to pregnant women identified through nutritional screening as having critical dietary gaps. The women are enrolled through a structured coaching and referral system in primary healthcare facilities and community outreach points, and receive ongoing support via a digital health platform. More than 300 women have been referred to the initiative and 96% collected a seed box.

The local non-profit Nuru Nigeria trained nearly 2,000 women in conflict-affected Adamawa State communities to cultivate backyard vegetable gardens, providing locals with a reliable food source. The program distributed drought-resistant, nutrient-rich seeds and taught women how to integrate balanced, vitamin-rich diets that address malnutrition. Women who participated in the program report measurable health improvements in their families, including fewer illnesses and healthier pregnancies.

Operated by The Neo Child Initiative, the ReachOut Project provides nutrional counseling and screening to parents and their children in underserved communities, free of charge. Since 2015, the ReachOut Project has supported 20,000 people across 10 communities in the state.

The Milk Bank Nigeria provides donor breast milk for sick, low birth weight and premature babies in neonatal ICUs across the country to reduce mortality in preterm babies. The Milk Bank Nigeria launched in August 2022 and as of Decemeber the organization had registered four donors who had supplied 33 liters of breast milk.

The human milk bank at St. Francis Hospital opened in 2021 and is the first of its kind in the country. About eight mothers donate breast milk to the bank each day, which is then used to provide the necessary nutrients for the health and development of pre-term babies and those fighting illnesses.

The GEANCO Foundation provides services to increase the health of pregnant women, including an anemia clinic that provides free antenatal care and a stipend to support women’s nutritional needs. Because many women prefer to give birth with traditional birth attendants (TBAs), they’ve trained hundreds of TBAs to provide safe and hygienic care to pregnant women. Post-training, TBAs are supervised by a nurse midwife for compliance and lab technicians test women for more serious complications. GEANCO built sanitary modular clinics, with beds and a delivery room, for two TBAs with plans for more.

When babies are born in less that ideal scenarios, such as prematurely, both mother and baby are often impacted by the stress of the situation, impacting the amount of milk a mother can produce. Breast milk banks aim to address this, however, by providing human breast milk donated by volunteers to mothers and babies in need.