Vishal Case Study PINS – Action Against hunger (ACF)

Sakeena and her family hail from Bheel community Village Ram, District Tando Allahyar. She has four sons and 9 family members and their main source of livelihood is daily labor. Sakeena and thousands of families in Sindh are affected by malnutrition owing to extreme poverty, insufficient food intake, lack of dietary diversification, low purchasing power, poor sanitary conditions and hygiene practices.

Vishal the youngest child of Sakeena is 12-months old. The child was suffering from severe acute malnutrition as identified by the ACF trained community health worker, Parvati during home visits. In further examining Vishal’s condition, it was observed that Vishal was deprived of the first milk (colostrum), a nutrient rich ‘Pre-milk’ that is produced from the mother’s body after the delivery of newborn. Vishal’s Mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) was 11 cm which is way below the threshold indicated for acute malnourishment.

Sakina was weak and did not produce enough milk to fulfil her child’s feeding requirement and initiated complimentary feeding at the age of 3 months. Sakina’s family had also inadequate access to clean drinking water and sanitation and  open-defecation was widely practiced in her community including her own family, due to which, Vishal and the entire family was at risk of diarrhoeal infection.

Vishal was immediately enrolled at OTP site BHU Sultanabad in district Tando Allahyar. On the day of admission, Vishal’s Mid upper arm circumference measurement was 11 cm and his weight was 6.2kg. He was discharged from the program after eight weeks with Mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) 11.9cm and a weight of 6.9 kg. During treatment, Vishal was provided Ready-to-use therapeutic food while Community health worker advised his mother on complementary feeding and nutritious diet, post-pregnancy diets, care during the first 1000 days – from conception to 2 years of age,  life-saving vaccinations for infants, balanced diet and counselling on environmental and WASH practices for a profound impact on child health outcomes.

Community health workers conducted recurring visits to follow-up with Sakina after her first visit to the OTP site to gauge the consumption of therapeutic food and nutritional supplements. The treatment at the OTP site reflected a visible improvement in Vishal’s health. Within one month, Vishal went from severe acute malnutrition to moderate acute malnutrition. This experience gave Vishal’s mother the confidence in OTP treatment and confided her trust in ACF’s activities. She is now encouraging other mothers in village to visit OTP and screen their children as well.

ACF under the Program for Improved Nutrition in Sindh (PINS) project has set-up Outpatient Therapeutic feeding Program (OTP) sites jointly in partnership with PPHI in Tandoallah Yar, to bring the services for the treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) children, closer to communities by making services available at decentralized treatment points.

ACF under the Program for Improved Nutrition in Sindh (PINS) project has set-up Outpatient Therapeutic feeding Program (OTP) sites jointly in in partnership with PPHI in Tandoallah Yar, to bring the services for the treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) children, closer to communities by making services available at decentralized treatment points.

ACF and PPHI provide free of cost ready-to-use therapeutic foods to malnourished children under the age of 5, combined with distribution of micro-nutrient powders for infants among mothers whose children are identified as moderately malnourished during initial screening and Iron folic acid supplementation for pregnant and lactating women ACF and its partner PPHI, have set-up operational OTP care sites for communities in seven other districts of Sindh as well including (Matiari, Tando muhammad khan, Thatta, Sujawal, Larkana, Qambar Shehdadkot, Shikarpur. These decentralised OTP care sites provide free of cost services and treatment, under the supervision of trained medical specialists, for malnourished young children.

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