CMAM Training to facility Health Workers in Terekeka, CES

In an effort to improve and sustain quality of nutrition services in Terekeka County in Central Equatorial State, South Sudan, a 12 months PCA (Jan-2021 –Dec 2021) has been signed between UNICEF and AFOD to scale up nutrition intervention and build the capacity of health facility service providers and other stake holders to deliver quality and sustained nutrition services.

For this background, a 3 days MIYCN training was organized to improve staff knowledge on MIYCN prevention of malnutrition and to disseminate massages to the community for behavior changes.

Among others, outlined below are the Objectives, Outputs, Recommendations from the Training:

Objectives

• Understand the importance of diverse diet for proper growth and development of young children (6-23 months), PLWs and other members of the family.
• Conduct participatory cooking demonstrations from locally available food items at homes and at community gatherings to operationalize GMP at health facilities and nutrition sites
• Improve skills of communities on growing diverse and fresh fruits using manure from household waste.
• Improve skills and equip CNVs and lead mothers to support beneficiaries in developing kitchen gardens.

Outputs

1. The participants were able to demonstrate appropriates skills in preparation of age appropriate toys for Early Childhood Development (ECD).
2. The targeted number of participants 29 participants attended the training (M=25 F=4).
3.  Participants were provided with variety of training Materials to aid and simplify the session.
4. Participants gained enough skills through practical garden visits to examine the importance of growing varieties of nutritious fresh crops like cabbages, carrots, tomatoes, pumpkins, egg plants cassava and potatoes for appropriate Kitchen Garden and diet.

Recommendations

• All partners agreed to prepare a role out plan for training of County Health and Nutrition workers in future.
• All the active partners at the County should ensure the seamless integration of Nutrition with other programs like WASH, FSL, Health and Protection across the county.
• In future, partners should continue to provide refresher trainings, orientations to constantly update the knowledge of staff to enable proper programming.

In Conclusion, the training was successful and the trainees were excited with knowledge obtained. AFOD Management would like to extend gratitude to UNICEF South Sudan for funding this Training to ensure Quality services are provided at the County inline with International Standards, Ministry of Health South Sudan Standards and also thank the State Ministry of Health (CHD) Terekeka County, CES for the support and guidance.