Our nutrition project in Malawi promotes good nutrition practices, using locally available food. We train households on the importance of balanced meals that contain six key food groups and how to prepare them. We also support participants with vegetable seeds, fruit tree seedlings and livestock, to diversify their diets.
Meet Julieta (pictured). She is one of the nutrition promoters for the project, and also has two children of her own - her eldest aged three, and her youngest three months.
Julieta actively supports different nutrition activities in her home village, including care groups, training and awareness raising. Her passion for nutrition began after she attended our training sessions in maternal and neonatal health, and received five chickens as part of the project. Julieta became pregnant with her second child in March 2020. During her pregnancy, she prepared nutritious meals for her family.
Julieta says: “I was eating the six food groups because I wanted to give birth to a healthy baby. I also wanted to prove that the information in the maternal and neonatal health counselling module is true, and to encourage other mothers to do the same after they see my healthy baby.”
Image: Julieta tends to her crops
Julieta’s son rarely falls sick unlike his elder brother did when he was the same age. The family used to spend a lot of money on medication for their first-born son, who was born severely underweight. “My life has changed and that of my family too. We are a happy and healthy family now,” says Julieta.
Julieta has become a role model for other nutrition volunteers and other households. She encourages others to follow the nutrition guidance, helping many other families in the community.
Context:
The GIZ-BMZ-funded project Food and Nutrition Security Programme (2020-2022) aims to improve the nutritional status and resilience to food crises of people in Dedza district who are vulnerable to nutrition insecurity, specifically 18,277 children under two and 11,770 pregnant and lactating women. With significant impacts on nutritional education and household diets, this project is contributing to long-term health outcomes through positive maternal and neo-natal health.