Malnutrition and Awareness

Project Description

Results from nutrition assessments which were conducted in Kandahar Province Districts indicate a worrying increase in the number of undernourished cases particularly among children and pregnant women in the last years. The prevalence of moderate and severe stunting among children under 5 years old has increased; five to seven times more than what is considered as acceptable by the WHO in a normally nourished population constituting a public health problem. With a constantly increasing trend, iron deficiency anemia is reported to affect nearly half of children under five years of age in the Kandahar Province Strip. With slight variations among studies, there is a consistency in the literature that anemia represents a chronic major public health problem in Kandahar province Afghanistan. It is worth pointing that reasons of anemia and malnutrition are multi-factorial including; lack of food at the household level due to many reasons such as the political situation, the collapse of the economy, eating patterns and habits, cooking practices, lack of awareness and the presence of other diseases particularly infections. Current approaches to malnutrition and anemia focus on identifying and addressing medical conditions, providing supplementations and educating mothers about proper early childhood nutrition. However, still in the Kandahar Province, the management of malnutrition and anemia still requires empowerment. The main objective of the Project was to assist the poor people (mother and sons) and eradicate the poverty from the selected area of Kandahar Province in preparing and providing the Nutrition Project. The provision of the project was conducted in different districts of Kandahar province such as Panjwahi, Arghandab, Dand, Daman including the central of Kandahar province, the beneficiaries which had been benefited from the nutrition project were 840. 

Nutrition Education

Improving nutritional status requires households to adopt new attitudes and put those attitudes into practice. However. Neither of these steps happened without at adequate knowledge base. Although the production of foods with high micronutrient value alone may increase nutritional status of the population. A comprehensive nutrition education program is required to change food habits that currently prevent adequate micronutrient levels. An increase in income can often halt traditionally beneficial practices. Such as gathering of wild foods and breast-feeding and lead to the purchase of foods with a low nutrient density.