Eradicating Infant Malnutrition in East Bali

Dissemination of the Study’s Findings: A Key Takeaway

This year marks the conclusion of our 5-year malnutrition study, “Developing a Family-Based Nutrition Intervention Model in Ban Village” conducted in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University. To share the study’s findings, we held a dissemination event on Thursday, August 1st, 2024, at Puskesmas (Community Health Care) Kubu II. The event gathered 33 participants, including representatives from key Karangasem government departments, the head of Ban Village, and local health cadres. This event was a crucial opportunity to communicate our findings to stakeholders.

A key takeaways from this event is the vital role of all family members, particularly husbands and in-laws, in supporting balanced nutritional intake for pregnant women, children under two years old, and female adolescents. Emotional support from husbands is also crucial in ensuring successful breastfeeding efforts for infants.

Another important insight is the importance of ensuring that female adolescents, who no longer receive free iron supplements after graduating from school, continue to consume iron supplements. Many tend to stop taking these supplements when they must obtain it themselves.

Partnering with 1000Days Fund to End Stunting

As we will work closely with the respective community leaders in scaling up the Family-Based Nutrition Intervention Model across Ban Village’s 19 communities, we have partnered with the 1000Days Fund to empower Posyandu (Community Health Post) cadres with the knowledge and skills they need to prevent stunting by exclusive breastfeeding, and complementary feeding practices among families in their communities.

The first training was held on 16 October at the Ban Village Office, attended by 12 Posyandu cadres. The focus of this session was stunting: its definition, impacts, prevention strategies, and the way to effectively communicate this information to the community. In this training, we also introduced a smart chart poster developed by the 1000Days Fund which will be fixed to the inside wall of the families home so that they can check their child’s height daily. Cadres can use this chart as a media to educate families about stunting and an early detection tool for stunting. A variety of other methods were taught, including presentations, emo-demo (emotion-based demonstration games), and simulations. This training is crucial, as many cadres admit that they lack confidence in educating their communities due to a lack of prior knowledge and experience.

Through this training, they are expected to be able to conduct family-based nutrition interventions by themselves, ensuring the sustainability of our effort to eradicate infant malnutrition in East Bali.

Transforming Nutrition in Ban: Final Study Preview

We are pleased to share the progress on our groundbreaking 5-year malnutrition study, "Developing a Family-Based Nutrition Intervention Model in Ban Village," conducted in collaboration with Udayana University's Faculty of Medicine. As we enter the final evaluation stage, our dedicated field team successfully completed comprehensive data collection from 302 families by the end of March.  We are excited to report that Udayana University experts completed their analysis in early July, which has revealed transformative insights, summarised below:

Pregnant Women’s Knowledge and Family Support:

The majority of pregnant women have good knowledge about Chronic Energy Deficiency (CED) and anaemia and understand the importance of balanced nutrition.

Families of pregnant women also share this knowledge and show strong support by providing nutritious food and prohibiting smoking near pregnant women.

Husbands are very supportive of important practices such as Immediate Mother and Child Contact, exclusive breastfeeding, and breast care.

Support for Breastfeeding Mothers:

Most families with children under two years old understand the importance of balanced nutrition for breastfeeding mothers and husbands strongly support exclusive breastfeeding and breast care. Husbands and other family members provide significant support providing nutritious food, and reducing maternal fatigue.

Adolescent Females’ Awareness:

The majority of teenagers understand the causes of anaemia and how to prevent it as well as recognizing the importance of measuring upper arm circumference to detect Chronic Energy Deficiency (CED). Teenagers had varying understandings of body image, with some recognizing its negative impact on self-confidence and eating patterns and physical activity was rare among most girls, and many occasionally experienced exposure to second hand smoke.

These very positive results demonstrate the effectiveness of our developed ‘family model’ method, which will significantly help to address malnutrition in Ban Village through sustainable family involvement. The findings will be disseminated to key stakeholders on July 30, such as the village government, local health centre, health services, and related government agencies whose roles are essential in the child malnutrition program.

Intensive Malnutrition Treatment Program

In April, we launched our intensive malnutrition treatment programs for toddlers suffering from severe malnutrition. The program focuses on improving their nutritional status through family assistance, monthly home visits, nutritional monitoring, nutrition education, and providing nutritious food packages.

Looking ahead, we plan to roll out the family-based intervention method across Ban Village, working closely with the community health centre and village leaders. Our plan includes extensive outreach through the posyandu (community health posts) to ensure every family receives the support and education they need. However, to transform these plans into reality and extend our impact, we need your continued support.

Your contributions are vital in sustaining and expanding these life-changing programs. Together, we can make a lasting difference in eradicating malnutrition and ensuring a healthier future for the children of Ban Village.