Mothers who manage guide the malnourished

Malnutrition is the main reason one in four children born in Niger dies before their fifth birthday. Plan enables better nutrition by securing community access to good food and encourages behavioral change to modify any attitudes that prevent good diet.

Mothers of children with a healthy, normal body weight become role models and peer educators for others. This peer-led approach ensures mothers realize they can provide affordable, locally available foods – if their friends and neighbors can do it, so can they.

In Spring 2005, Plan Niger tested this approach in the Dosso village of Darey Maliki. The community was briefed and everyone encouraged to participate. Beforehand, over two in five of the under three years olds were malnourished. 38 moderately while 26 were severe cases.

Mothers of healthy, well-nourished children modelled their cooking and feeding techniques. The women met every day to cook and feed their children together:

• 45 mothers of malnourished children chose to participate in the program (70% of original group)
• after one-month, 73% of the severely malnourished children gained enough to move into the moderate category
• 33% of the moderately malnourished children who participated had gained enough weight to be no longer considered malnourished

Encouraged by this success rate, Plan Niger intends to replicate this program in other sponsored children’s villages.