Machinga District Welcomes DAPP Nutrition Project
Machinga District council has welcomed the DAPP Malawi’s Screening, Care and Nutrition for the Management of Severe and Moderate Malnutrition in Children Aged 0 To 2 Years project which will be implemented in the district for a period of 12 months.
The project’s objective is to contribute to the reduction of infant mortality due to severe acute malnutrition in children aged 0 to 2 years in Malawi while particularly targeting Machinga district.
The activities will be implemented in Traditional Authority (T/A) Nchinguza , an area prone to faminine hence it records higher cases of malnutrition. The project is expected to reach out to 1,750 pregnant and lactating mothers as the key population and 30,000 to 35,000 people as the secondary population between October 2018 and September 2019.
Speaking during the District Executive Committee (DEC) meeting, the acting Director of Planning and Development for Machinga district Mr. Morson Magombo said the district is pleased to welcome and approve the project in T/A Nchinguza and they expect that it will benefit the community as it is an area prone to famine and that most NGOs (Non-governmental organisations) shun implementing projects in the area.
According to the partnership agreement between DAPP Malawi and the Valdese Church through Humana People to People Italia, the project is expected to increase malnutrition screening, access to nutrition services and reduce acute malnutrition in children.
Activities to be implemented in the project include community counselling to pregnant and lactating mothers including those with malnourished children, supplementary feeding demonstrations, correct breastfeeding as well as cooking demonstrations on the six food groups targeting care groups.
In addition, Health Surveillance Assistants, Community Health Workers and volunteers will be trained in Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) and they will work hand in hand with the targeted population to ensure referrals to rehabilitation services and provision of supplementary foods which include Likuni phala to malnourished are done.
DAPP Malawi implements project in areas of health, education, agriculture and community development in order to create communities that are self-sustainable and have improved quality of life.
