The 1st stage of IEC Campaign was done simultaneously with the baseline survey, it provided information to the community on the following.
1. Intergeneration lifecycle of Malnutrition.
2. Importance of breastfeeding up to 6 months and starting complementary feeding after 6 months.
3. Importance of girl child health and nutrition.
4. Anemia.
5. Importance of pregnancy weight gain and institutional delivery.
6. Importance of sanitation and safe drinking water.
However the feedback suggested that the community/mothers/women while they listened patiently were not getting influenced by it, nor did they show any interest to learn more.
After a brainstorm about how to influence the community towards dietary behaviour change, our field partner BAIF suggested that we could try and equip school children with information and awareness, and make them the key agents of change to influence mothers and families to cook diversified nutritive energy giving daily food.
We were also informed that some children come to school on an empty stomach because households believe that the child is getting a mid-day meal in school in any case.
We have created a simple but impactful film addressing this issue, ” Healthy, Successful Students, Strong Nation” https://lnkd.in/g6u87-aF . Feedback indicates that the film has been very enthusiastically received by the students and teachers, officials and non-officials
BAIF has so far conducted awareness programme in 17 schools.
The programme consists of 1)Airing of film 2) Airing of the video on healthy affordable nutritive recipes 3) A short essay by students about what was understood from the film and counseling, followed by a healthy snack.
Teachers are sharing the videos with parents groups and motivating them towards dietary change to include affordable vegetables, local fruits and milk.
The local media has also shown great interest and has supported the initiative.
Pictures from the Awareness Programme
School IEC Programme- Impact Assessment
The school programme was held in 40 government high schools, for students between 12-16 years of age, covering the entire District. The feedback on the programme was obtained from students, their parents and teachers across the District, totally covering 152 feedbacks. The students who provided feedback were 55% girls and 45% boys.
Feedback informs that the programme was well received by the students, teachers and parents. The findings suggest that there has been positive behaviour change and dietary diversification among 60% of the families and students. The detailed findings are in the report.