This little boy I met yesterday is 18 months old - and severly malnourished. His name is Dao (pronounced Zao) Bhio and lives in the Quoc Toan Commune in Cao Bang.
This is him with his mum attending nutritional training (and trying some of the food they are taught how to prepare for kids), checking his weight and height. His height is 74cms and weight is 8.9kgs - less than most kids of 10 months old.The usual check for children used to just be weight but checking height is so important to get a real reading of nutritional status - introduced by ChildFund in this area. The scales used previously were old, provided by govt - now these give more accurate figures.
At the end of this day, the district health worker gave me the updated results from checking 36 kids. 15 (41%)were underweight, 19 (52%)were under height, 13 (36)had both - in total 21/36 or 58.3% of kids under two were malnourished. that is a lot!!!
Once these kids are identified, they will become part of the feeding programme you are supporting to get them back on track with boosting their nutrition for 6 months, while looking at long term solutions with the parents and wider community in terms of training and providing long term solutions for whole families.
This is how the day progressed for Dao....
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Dao with his mum try the
food they are taught to make |
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| The clinic located high in the hills |
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| Dao is weighed on the scales - 8.9kgs |
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| Then his height is checked - 74cms |
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| He is provided with a Vitamin A supplement |
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| Then returns to the scales to check |
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| Such a sweet little boy - not shy of the white lady!!! |
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