Crèche supported by District Mineral Foundation
Creche is a community-based day care center at the village level wh ere caregivers leave their children, giving them an…
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Child Care Days
Thrive
Thrive is related to children’s growth and well being across multiple domains of life (e.g., physical, mental, cognitive, social and functional).
Our Impact
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Children Cared Daily
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Crèches (Jharkhand, Odisha & Chattisgarh)Ensuring Health and Nutrition
According to NFHS 4 (2015-16), 45% of children are stunted and 29% are wasted in Jharkhand and in Odisha, 34% are stunted and 20% are wasted.
These averages tend to mask the higher prevalence of undernutrition among the poor and underserved women and children living in remote locations of Jharkhand and Odisha. To address it, nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive interventions were required.
Nutrition Specific interventions meant access to diverse foods for girls and women; providing antenatal care and iron supplementation; appropriate infant and young child feeding (IYCF); and treatment for children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), while Nutrition Sensitive interventions included women’s empowerment, safe water, sanitation, sustainable livelihoods, preventive actions, and care–seeking for childhood illness.
Action Against Malnutrition – AAM (2012-2017)
This was a multicentric study in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha. Ekjut was responsible for the intervention in 3 of the 5 blocks in AAM study where each block was divided into 3 areas.
PLA Meetings – Women’s Empowerment, Food diversity & frequency, nutrition in pregnancy, Birth spacing, WASH etc.
Home visit & Counselling – Counseling for IYCF, illness prevention, and support for referrals, discussing growth monitoring milestones
Crèche – Feeding, Hygiene, Early Childhood Care and Development, growth promotion, mosquito net, smokeless environment
Districts in Jharkhand – Gola, Khuntpani, Ratu Nagari blocks.
Districts in Odisha – Saharpada, Thakurmunda blocks.
Link to our published paper
Community Action Research to improve Nutrition and Growth (CARING) cRCT (2013 – 2016)
In the CARING (Community Action Research for Improving Nutrition and Growth) study [2013-16] conducted in Jharkhand and Odisha, where women gathered in a participatory way to improve nutritional status of mothers and young children, while there were improvements in dietary diversity among children and mothers, there was also a 32% reduction in Infant mortality rate in the 3 years period.
2 complementary activities under CARING:
Home visits were made in the third trimester of pregnancy & monthly visit to children < 2 years of age (support feeding, hygiene, care, stimulation)
Monthly PLA meetings with women’s group (individual and community action for nutrition)
Participants: Pregnant Women & their Children
Fewer children were underweight at 18 months (p=0.04).
1. Children in the intervention were slightly taller (0.11 SD, p=0.08) at 18 months
2. More Pregnant women received minimum dietary diversity (p=0.03)
3. At 12 and 18 months, more children received Minimum Dietary Diversity
(p=0.01) and Minimum Meal Frequency (p=0.03) (adequacy)
4. More caregivers washed their hands before feeding children (p<0.001)
5. More infants survived till 12 months (IMR Intervention: 51-IMR Control: 64, p=0.05)
Link to our published paper
Scaling up of Crèches
Drawing on the learning from AAM, Government of Odisha has started – crèches in Keonjhar district, funded by the District Mineral Foundation. The learning and insights from AAM and CARING continues to inform Ekjut’s own initiative against malnutrition in a number of sites and public policies.
These crèches are daycare facilities located in rural underserved villages and hamlets for children below three years of age. Two trained women from the same villages care for the children, provide them with wholesome nurturing care while their parents are at work. The nurturing care emphasizes on good health, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, security and safety, and opportunities for early learning, and for creating a nurturing and stimulating environment for holistic development.
The community contributes in the activities of the crèches in several ways, like, providing fencing materials and help in building of fence, painting the walls, vegetables for daily meals, participating in play activities with children with songs and dance.
Link to our published paper
In other ‘Thrive’ initiatives in Odisha, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, Ekjut was involved in designing community mobilization strategies, providing technical support for developing the intervention manuals, and training state training teams for Participatory Learning and Action meeting cycles.
Through Ekjut’s technical support
Shakti Varta (2013-0216 ):
Mission Shakti is a flagship program of the Government of Odisha’s initiative for women’s empowerment. Ekjut supported the Government of Odisha through the Mission Shakti platform in implementing Participatory Learning and Action strategies to improve health, nutrition, water and sanitation in 24,000 villages across 15 high burden districts. Leading partners were the Department of Women and Child Development and the Department of Health and Rural Development.
Shakti Varta
Summary of key findings of an evaluation immediately post-intervention of Shakti Varta Women’s Groups using a Participatory Learning and Action…
Gram Varta (2012-2014):
Ekjut supported the training of facilitators from JEEViKA, Bihar (Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society) and WDC (Women Development Corporation, Bihar) on Participatory Learning and Action methods to improve health, nutrition, and sanitation in 3200 villages across 14 districts.
Gram Varta
In villages across Bihar a combination of poverty, lack of knowledge, inadequate health and nutrition services and lack of essential…
Sanjhi Sehat (2014-2015):
Ekjut supported the State Rural Livelihood Mission, Madhya Pradesh Government with training and implementation of Participatory Learning and Action to reduce undernutrition in 968 villages across 8 districts in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh Technical Assistance Support Team.
Ekjut in its 17th year in 2019, made a commitment towards working to deepen its understanding on how nurturing care can be delivered to children of large underserved population.
