Our holistic approach to community-based programs including health, nutrition, child development and overall empowerment strategies is key to our interactions with the community. The major focus of these program areas is to reach the most needy and vulnerable population in the community.
During the month of April, we responded to an invite by Smiles Foundation for a visit to Jesus Helpers Children’s home within Nairobi County. Our areas of focus during this visit was to conduct a quick nutrition screening, interactive education on healthy food choices among children and identify possible areas for future engagements based on the existing health and nutrition challenges at the center.
Activities Conducted;
The center hosts 42 children between the ages 2-17years with 4 devoted caregivers. For this age bracket, some of the activities we engaged in include;
- Nutrition screening and promotion of health seeking behavior. Our screening established fairly good nutrition status among the children with 5 at risk of malnutrition.
- Interactive nutrition education to promote healthy food choices and physical activity among the children.
- Menstrual health session and protection among the adolescent girls at the center.
- Sensitization on Food fortification using MAMA micromix for the entire population to further reduce any risk of malnutrition.
Future Engagements
From our assessment and overall engagements with the caretakers at the center, areas of common interests that are relevant to program activities include; deworming activities at the center, food security strategies, continued food fortification and mentorship. We are looking forward to more of such mentorships as we scale our program activities.
Our team conducting MUAC screening at the center followed by interactive session on healthy food choices for the children.
Sarah enjoying fortified food with the children at the center.
Sammy and Erick engaging the children in nutrition education sessions.