Maternal and Child Nutrition and Health, Afghanistan

The Nutrition Project is focused on assessment, supplementary feeding, and prevention of malnutrition through an integrated health approach in ten areas of Kabul and two areas in Mazar-e Sharif.

The nutrition project includes not only assessing and feeding malnourished children and women but also training men and women in the community on how to monitor the health of their families and work with the food they have to prevent further starvation.

In the north of Afghanistan, BLiSS (Birth Life Saving Skills) was first started over 20 years ago. The BLiSS curriculum has been developed over time and has now broadened to MCNH (Maternal-Child Health and Nutrition). Operation Mercy Afghanistan provides a series of community health trainings that span 5 months (2 months on nutrition and 3 months on maternal-child health) for men and women in the northern region of Afghanistan. We currently provide our trainings in two government-run health clinics and also at the provincial hospital.

We partner with WFP (World Food Program) to provide supplemental food for mothers and children who are found to be malnourished and track their progress over time until they reach a satisfactory weight.

We focus on educating families and communities to ensure that the skills to diagnose and prevent malnutrition are spread to others who may never set foot in a clinic.