Community Nutrition Projects (2000 — 2010)

Back­ground

NPCS’s parent organ­i­sa­tion United Mission to Nepal (UMN) had been working with dis­trict health author­i­ties through­out the 1990s to increase the nutri­tion knowl­edge of health staff and improve the health of women and children.

Fol­low­ing the success of these projects, we expanded our work to other dis­tricts in Nepal by part­ner­ing with other non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions working in those dis­tricts to further the impact of our com­mu­nity-level nutri­tion activities.

During this period, our projects took place in six dis­tricts across central and western hilly regions:

  • Jumla
  • Dhaad­ing
  • Mak­wan­pur
  • Tanahau
  • Kavre
  • Lal­it­pur

Project out­comes

Dra­matic improve­ments in the body weights and nutri­tion status of women in the pro­gramme districts

Vast major­ity of babies born during the pro­grammes were fed colostrum, the highly ben­e­fi­cial first breastmilk

Fam­i­lies were sup­ported to help their mal­nour­ished chil­dren recover within their own homes

Increased numbers of kitchen gardens, and women and chil­dren eating green leafy vegetables

Suc­cess­fully dis­trib­uted infor­ma­tion about the value of local foods and how to eat a nutri­tious diet