How "Healthy Mama, Healthy Pikin" Is Using PHC Immunisation Days to Improve Child Feeding in Ebonyi

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.

The National Home Grown School Feeding program provides food to schoolchildren to support their health and education while simultaneously supporting local cooks and farmers. During its operation, the program reached millions of students across 3o states and led to a 20% increase in primary school enrollment.

The Malnutrition Prevention and Treatment Program and Nutrition Rehabilitation Home in Kathmandu provide resources to children experiencing, or at risk for, malnutrition, which has long been a life-threatening issue in Nepal.

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.

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.

To address community malnutrition, 22 mothers began a savings and credit cooperative, which has since grown to 59 members. An elected committee looks for the most nutritionally vulnerable members, who are eligible for a small interest-free loan to improve the nutrition of their families. The women pay a membership fee and when loans are repaid, the cooperative gets a small percentage of the profits, which can be paid in installments until the whole amount is repaid. The group’s savings has also helped them buy animals that provide nutritious food products and organic fertilizers for their crops.

In the district of Bijapur, a town in India, there was a malnutrition rate of 40 per cent in 2019. In order to tackle the problem officials identified the areas with high malnutrition and directed their efforts to those places. They introduced nutrient rich millets in child care centers. They also created kitchen gardens to provide the community with access to fresh vegetables. Finally, they brought Nutrient Rehabilitation Centers in the community since parents were hesitant to take their children to them. Two years later, malnutrition rates dropped by 12 percent.

One in three children in Peru are stunted by a lack of nutritious foods in their diet. In 2005, the government gave cash hand-outs to poor mothers, but only on the condition that they had regular health check-ups and their children went to school. By 2014 the number of children growing up too small had halved.

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 Taimaka Outpatient Clinic operates a community-based malnutrition treatment model that brings severe acute malnutrition care closer to families. Since 2019, Taimaka has treated over 12,000 children and currently cares for more than 10,000 children annually.