Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
A Second Chance
Priska lost her mother two years ago because of serious illness. Her mother died leaving Priska and her sister in the care of their father who unfortunate hasn’t provided much care for the children. Priska is the youngest and since the death of their mother the lack of god parent has left her withdrawn and of poor health. Ina Eni is Priska’s grandmother and up to recently she hadn’t taken a lead role in looking after the 2 children. When Ina Eni hear about the SurfAid Pos Gisi a change began. Ina Eni told us how the Pos Gizi has played a formative role in changing how she cares for Priska of her second chance as she see it….
A second chance at parenting
“ My name is Ina Eni. I’m so glad with all that SurfAid has helped in our village.. Why am I so happy? It is because of SurfAid that I realize that I did not really know how to care for my grandchildren. But since SurfAid came, they thought me from how to maintain cleanliness, how to give a balance meal to a child and how to treat the child in a caring and supportive manner. What I have learnt from SurfAid has really changed how I care for my grandchild Priska.”
“Previously her meals schedule was not arranged, when she was hungry she would come looking for food and she could it what ever was left over from the last meal, but now I begun to be arrange her food first, then we eat after her. Her meal schedule is arranged carefully. In the morning around 6 am and again at 10 am she eats egg or porridge, then at 12 pm she having complete lunch with some vegetables and meat if we have it. Then before get dinner she is given a snack like sweet potatoes or bananas. With the increased focus on regular meals her appetite has also steadily increased.”
“The changes in her behavior since we joined the pos gizi are very real. Like washing hands, before she never washed hands at all, but now she is so used to wash hands before meals, that it is not only me who feels unhappy about unwashed hands. Priska demands that we wash hands before every meal and she also now brushes her teeth after eating.”
“After learning about the importance of good hygiene and keeping a clean home, we try to keep our home more clean and neat. In my kitchen for my whole life there have always been plenty of insects and spider webs but now it is all been cleaned. I clean to make sure, my grandchild can have the best chance to become more healthy and more cheerful and Priska responding. Through the Pos Gizi she has developed her health first and now her sing voice. She loves to sing the health songs like the hand washing song taught by the SurfAid staff in the pos gizi. To ensure Priska’s stay healthy I will try as good as I can to apply all health message which I learnt in Pos gizi.”
“Thank you to SurfAid for serving us well. My hope is the pos gizi could be continued in our village and also that SurfAid don't get tired to educate us and giving even an old lady like me a second chance”
Listen to the Pos Gizi song on the Nias blog. This is an amateur staff video from a recent training in Teluk Dalam. While the picture quality is not great the sounds capture the sprit of the volunteers who through song are leading behavior change across Nias. Songs are key in traditional Nias culture for passing on learning and enforcing cultural norms. The Nias pos gizi was composed during a care group training. It focuses on telling mothers to bring their children to pos gizi to gain their strength.
Come on re-strengthen your arms,
and your tired knees
then look at the straight road to go
so that would be still stable what have been tired…
Footnotes
Ina Eni was interviewed by Mawar, CF for Sirombu and Hepi admin Officer for Nias. The Community Based Health Program in Nias is funded by NZAID. Story was edited by Declan hearne. All photos by Declan Hearne
In the Hearth approach, community volunteers and caregivers of malnourished children practice new cooking, feeding, hygiene and caring behaviors shown to be successful for rehabilitating malnourished children. Volunteers actively involve the mother and child in rehabilitation and learning in a comfortable home situation and work to enable the families to sustain the child’s enhanced nutritional status at home. The Hearth session (Pos Gizi) consists of nutritional rehabilitation and education over a twelve-day period followed by home visits to the caregivers by volunteers. After two weeks of being fed additional high-calorie foods, children become more energetic and their appetites increase. Visible changes in the child, coupled with the “learning by doing” method, results in improved caregiver confidence and skills in feeding, child care, hygiene and health-seeking practices.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
NZAID monitoring visit to Nias
NZAID conducted an end of program monitoring visit to Nias CBHP at the start of April for 3 days. The monitoring visit was lead by Merinda-Lee Hassell from the
The visited focused on high level meetings with key stakeholders and decision makers in both the districts of Nias and Nias Selatan along with visits to Puskesmas and villages to see Pos Gizi Session and the completed WATSAN facilities.
Meetings in Nias were held with Bappeda, Dinas Kesahtan , UNORC & BRR, ACTED & World Relief. An evening meeting was also held with the Bupati at his personal residence. Meetings in Nias Selatan were held with UNORC, SRC & PMI health along with a lunch meeting with heads of government Nias Selatan focused health coordination.
The village visited to Hilamaetaluo was the highlight of the visit with NZAID being able to spot check on four pos gizi sessions across the village. Each session was being managed by the community cader and each was model for transparency, accountability and community lead actions. After visiting the Pos Gizi Session and Watsan facilities the donors met with the village leaders, elders and stakeholders who were all delighted to host the visit and continued to demonstrate their great support for the health activities in their village.
Feedback from the donor was all extremely positive and is seen as validation of the results now evident from the Pos Gizi sessions, the Nias team spirit and great collaboration with local communities.
Merinda-Lee reported that “It was super to see first hand the Community Based Health Programms and the implementation of the PD Hearth approach. It is a very dynamic programme and great to see the commitment of the villages in educating and improving the health of their children.”
The NZAID team were really appreciative for all the effort and enthusiasm that went into making the visit happen and enjoyed meeting the SurfAid team and learning about our challenges and successes. On behave of the Nias team the only disappoint was that the donors could not visit more villages – but the team remains hopeful that other visitors from within the SurfAid community and beyond will visit to see their efforts and success over the coming months as CBHP I draws to a close.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Brothers join the fight against Malnutrition
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In Nias, current malnutrition rates are 39% over twice the national average for Indonesia. One of the biggest challenges facing these communities is understanding basic health care practices and ensuring good nutrition for children under five years. Segera Wa’u (Sege), tells us his story.
My family
“My name is Segera Wa’u (Sege) and i am 17 years ol. I am the one and only male teenager cadre from Hilisalo’o, Botohilitano village, Nias Selatan.”
“Since my father has recently passed away I have started to look after my youngest brothers Lakhemi, is 44 months and Sultan, 32 months. They are the ninth and tenth children my mother Ina Mardi has given birth too. When the SurfAid facilitators Mutiara Sihombing and Yustisia Wa’u approached my mother to join the Hearth rehabilitation session she could not see any point and refused to participate. But to me there was something unique and unusual in the Hearth sessions facilitated by SurfAid International. I had never seen NGOs work directly with poor mothers like that before in our village.”
Looking in from the outside
“After a few days of the Hearth session, I observed that the Hearth session was good for the weaker children like my younger brothers, Sultan and Lakhemi. On the sixth day of the Hearth, while my mother was out, I brought my two brothers and two cans of rice (approx ½ kg) as our contribution to participate in the Hearth with the other mothers.”
“The other caregivers and Hearth cadres (formal volunteers) welcomed us to join the Hearth session. They all know my families condition and thankfully asked me to only bring firewood next time so I didn’t have to bring rice, which I didn’t have anyway! Everyday I brought firewood and coconut which I collected from our coconut trees. After the second week Mutiara and Ina Anugrah the head cadre asked me be a Hearth cadre, this was a real honour for me.”
Family Impacts
“When my father passed away I knew my mother would not have the heart to look after all of us. What I saw SurfAid doing was good and I wanted to join in. I have now learnt how to cook healthy meals from local ingredients which cost nothing extra to our family. It was difficult to mange Lakhemi and Sultan at the being but seeing the care and additional food they got kept me motivated. At home too it is having positive impacts. We now know and understand the importance of hygiene and hand washing and we are keeping our home cleaner than before.”
"But best of all my two little brothers have both gained weight, Sultan gained 800 grams and Lakhemi 900 grams over the last two months. They both are no longer several malnourished and they are both cleaner, more energetic and friendly with other kids. If SurfAid did not help us, I don’t know what would be of them now. Thank you SurfAid!"
Segera Wa’u was interviewed by Herry Napitupulu is the Senior Community Facilitator for Nias Selatan. Muturia and Yustisa are two of 6 Community Facilitators working with SurfAid to rehabilitate 50% of the 419 malnourished children in the SurfAid partner villages of Nias Selatan by June 2009. The Community Based Health Program in Nias is funded by NZAID. Story was edited by Declan hearne.
