PEER MOTHERS GROUP IN FOOD FORTIFICATION AND NUTRITION PROGRAMME
In the last four years, GCC has had a strong focus on meeting the educational and social needs of young girls affected by Boko Haram insurgency in the North East – especially in Borno State; efforts have been on giving these girls education, life skills training, sexual and reproductive health training and mentoring.
To strengthen reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in Borno state, Girl Child Concerns is advancing an enabling environment for Empowering Rural Adolescent Girls as Village Health Workers in Borno State, Nigeria. With the generous support from MSD for Mothers, GCC has trained and empowered 675 young women as Village Health Workers in 25 LGAs in Borno State. The initiative aimed at building the capacity of Village Health Workers to support and provide community-based Maternal, Newborn Child Health services.
Under the peer mother support group on infant and child food nutrition program, 409 participants trained on why Infant and Young Child feeding matters, the Common situation that can affect Infant and Young child feeding, Counseling Skills, the Importance of Breastfeeding infant and young child, Mother, Family, Community or Nation, active responsive feeding for young children, how to add micronutrient powders (MNP) to complementary foods, Common Breastfeeding difficulties, action to break the under-nutrition cycle among others.
All training is based on National Primary Health Care Development Agency guidelines for the cadre. Similarly, advocacy visits to Traditional and Religious Leaders; Local Government Chairmens and their Focal Persons, CBOs, State Ministry of Health and State Primary Health Development Agency to promote Maternal, Newborn & Child Health in Borno.
A year since the implementation of the project, we are already getting encouraging feedback from the communities and the World Health Organization (WHO) on the impact of our program in improving health-seeking behaviours in the communities where these Village Health Workers serve, while we work on collecting additional data to monitor impact.
