United Way & ICDS fight malnutrition among kids
In Thane collector’s office in September last year, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis revealed that more than 254 children succumbed to malnutrition in Palghar, which is barely 100 km from Mumbai. To take control of this situation, United Way Mumbai decided to undertake ‘Project Poshan’ along with Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in Panvel block II (Palghar and Raigad).
Last December, the NGO brought more than 830 undernourished children of Panvel block II under this project and now wants to add 115 undernourished children more in phase II of the project.
“There are about 18,000 children in Palghar and Raigad region. But with the help of 131 Anganwadi centres of Panvel II block of ICDS, we identified more than 837 kids who were malnourished and we brought them under our project,” said United Way Mumbai’s senior manager Anil Parmar.
In the phase I of the initiative, more than 837 malnourished kids are provided nutritional supplement (with energy of 500 kcal per day) for five months. These supplements will be provided for additional five months and will be of 250 kcal to ensure that the child remains nourished.
Anuj Ghanekar, co-ordinator, United Way Mumbai, said, “The nutritional supplements are in form of ready-to-cook food items like Poha, Upma and Ladoo (soya and wheat). The whole idea is to have food that is processed centrally and cooked locally.”
Adding to this, Parmar said, “We can easily supply the kids with energy bars and get results quickly. But the idea here is that this initiative should be sustainable for parents in the longrun.”
These items are usually prepared by the Anganwadi workers. “One Anganwadi worker has to cook for 100 kids along with her other community services,” added Parmar, making ready-to-cook food items a sustainable option.
Around six team members of the NGO work with 301 Anganwadi workers to train them on ways to maintain hygiene. On the other hand, the parents of the malnourished children are made to understand the dietary requirements of a malnourished children, said Ghanekar.
“Some of these children have access to junk food in the region but healthy food items are still out of their reach,” said Parmar.
For phase I, United Way Mumbai managed to raise Rs 25 lakh-Rs 26 lakh with the support of many individuals and through CSR activities of various companies.
“For phase II, we have not started collecting funds but we would require Rs 40 lakh–Rs 50 lakh as we plan to add more kids along with supporting the existing ones,” added Parmar.
United Way also has to get permission from ICDS to add more than 115 kids to the project. So, the project will start post-August. In phase II, the NGO is mulling over incentivising parents who worry about losing their daily wages when they get their malnourished kids to Anganwadi centres.
After the intervention by the NGO, it was observed that there has been significant average weight gain with three months of food distribution. “ICDS provided us with infrastructure support which allowed us to reach those many kids and get these results,” added Ghanekar. These malnourished kids are aged between 7 months and 6 years.