Malnutrition Program

Home > Community Development Program > Health Services > Malnutrition Program

Tackling Malnutrition

A young mother with her severely malnourished child.

In 2008, we have started tackling the problem of malnutrition in the community. This is a new project and one that is extremely important. If we want to improve the overall well being of the community, with the end goal being for our neighbors to have the ability to be more productive, then we must find solutions to all of the problems facing those living in the coastal regions of the island.

Malnutrition is the result of marginal dietary intake compounded by infection. In turn, marginal dietary intake is caused by household food insecurity, lack of clean water, lack of knowledge on good sanitation, and lack of alternative sources of income. It is also compounded by inadequate care, gender inequality, poor health services, and poor environment.

While income is not the sum of total of people's lives, health status as reflected by levels of malnutrition is. In Sumba a staggering percentage of children and adults are undernourished or malnourished. The island has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the poorest in Indonesia with a history of abject poverty, crop failure and famine.

It is estimated that more than half of the Sumbanese children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition and anemia due to poor diets, thus making them more susceptible to malaria, tuberculosis and a wide variety of severe gastro-intestinal illnesses. The impact of anemia on children is debilitating. A mild case can impair intellectual development and can lower a child's IQ by between 10 and 15 points.

Signs of undernourished and malnourished children are visible everywhere. A quick look around in any school and you will see children with visible signs of stunted growth. In a recent survey at the Anakaka School we found that 202 children out of 258 are severely malnourished, this is a staggering number!

In the villages it’s the same, however there we are also finding children too weak to attend school and some of who are near death. The problem stems from the protein poor Sumbanese diet, the shortage of food in the region and the parent’s lack of knowledge. They do not understand the causes and consequences of a poor diet and they do not recognize the warning signs of malnourishment, nor do they know what to do about it.

Since the beginning of the year Susie Woodall, our VSO volunteer nurse, has been studying the severity of the problem and finding simple solutions that we can implement. She, together with one of our staff has also developed a teaching program that focuses on Nutrition education.

This program is now being taught in all six of the schools we support. For a very small amount of money we can save an infant or young child. We provide eggs and powdered milk for the parents to give to their children and our staff continually monitors the recovery progress of the child. Usually within a month there are signs of recovery but it can take up to six months for the child to fully recover.

Design : Taten	Web Development : Taten	Content Management : iPublish