Growing up healthy

Ensuring children’s survival, protection and healthy development

Nguyen Vu

Health screening

Plan’s Growing Up Healthy Program aims to raise awareness of public health issues, and enable poor and disadvantaged children, their families and communities to get good health services at the grassroots level through:

• Information and education on child health and other issues that affect children’s health, such as nutrition, safe motherhood and HIV/AIDS
• Training for health workers at grassroots level to improve the access to and quality of healthcare delivery
• Improving health infrastructure and providing medical equipment at grassroots level

Tackling child malnutrition, community by community

28.4% of Vietnamese children under five suffer from malnutrition in Vietnam, according to the National Institute of Nutrition. A new Community-based Nutrition Program is beginning to reduce malnutrition in the rural areas where the rate has been even higher.

The knowledge and skills of primary caregivers, who are mainly mothers, about nutritious foods and childcare has been low. In addition, health staff and health volunteers have limited skills.

Thanh’s story

Thanh’s story brings the problem to life. In Gieng, “Old Well,” Village in Tien Luc Commune, Thanh wakes at 3am everyday to ride her bicycle 30 kilometers down the dirt road to sell tomatoes at the market to supplement her family’s income. She leaves in the dark hour of the morning and returns late in the evening, her hand made kerosene latern glowing from her handle bars.

Her husband is a farmer and their two children eat the rice he grows, as well some vegetables and, on rare occasions, small pieces of meat.

This morning she carries more than her normal load or worries. Her three year old child Hoa, was recently weighed at the Village Health Worker’s house. Thanh knew her child was small but she did not realize Hoa was malnourished. A local health worker asked her and her husband to enrol in a special community nutrition program to learn about more about nutrition and health.

In the areas Plan works, health staff and health volunteers learn how to provide nutrition to children under the age of five through a ten-day training course, and pregnant women learn key skills through a six-day course.

After training, these health workers can educate mothers, fathers and other caregivers in the communities. Training local health staff, health volunteers and others on nutrition of children and the care of pregnant women has already created more community awareness and lessened malnutrition in the rural areas of the country where Plan works.