Our pillars of village work

We conduct medical checkups in each of the 12 program villages every 6 months for all children under three years old and pregnant women.

All children are measured (lenght and weight) and we identify malnourished children according to the WHO wasting scale. We can also identify anemic children by measuring their hemoglobine blood levels.

During the village checkups we also screen for TB suspected and emergency patients, as well as for children with neurological or cardiological conditions, with subsequent referral to the Health Care Clinic for admission. 

As malnutrition is the main hinderniss to a healthy development of Santal children, we introduced village based nutrition programs. Here the focus is on pregnant and lactating women and children aged younger than 3 years. 

All children under 2 years old, or older if severe malnourished, are provided with our supplementary food "NutriMix" on a weekly basis: roasted wheat-lentil milk instant mix with sugar, oil and enriched with vegetables and fruits from the kitchen garden.

A long-term preventive iron therapy for all children aged younger than 2 years and older ones who suffer from moderate/severe anemia (Hb<10g/dl) helps to lower the rates of anemia in the children and fosters proper development.

In order to cover the micronutrient needs of the children, we produce a leaf powder made of dried Moringa leaves, which is rich in iron, protein and vitamins. This powder is used for baking Moringa cookies, that are distributed to malnourished children in the villages.

We train mothers on health related topics, hygiene, nutrition, and child care. Interactive learning with participatory action is the approach, which is most effective to spread awareness and imply sustainable behavioral changes. With illustrative drawings in Santal culture we explain for example about diarrhea or how TB spreads out. We sit together with the mothers and listen to their experiences. Together we can think how to stabilize the health of their children and how to react if a child suffers from watery stool or a pregnant woman is too weak to continue the work at home.  

In interactive cooking trainings mothers learn how to prepare appropriate infant and young child foods (with recipe suggestions), how to diversify family meals and to recognize hunger in their children.

As complementation of our nutrition programs, families are supported to start cultivating a kitchen garden with a variety of fruits and vegetables to improve the diets of their children and women.

We offer training, material and seeds for three plantation cycles per year.

Each of the 12 villages has a health worker who serves as a bridge between her village and our Health Care Clinic. They make weekly household visits in their villages to identify sick children, pregnant women, and to help mothers with the implementation of our nutrition program: iron supplementation and prepartion of NutriMix.

They also organize mothers' meetings to talk about malnutrition, anemia, emergency signs in children, family planning, tuberculosis, child care, etc.

Our health workers are trained on these topics by our social worker on a weekly basis at the Health Care Clinic.