Malnutrition

Malnutrition:
Silent deaths due to malnutrition have been a common phenomenon in Orissa in which Mayurbhanj District tops the list. 37 deaths in the year 2007 in the Gudgudia Gram panchayat of Dhalabani Block of Mayurbhanj District evoked us to think for the problem. When we assessed the reasons it was found that only unavailability food is not only the problem rather several other problems make the situation adverse. We started with there seven Villages of the Gudgudia Gram Panchayat.  We started with the capacity building of the community on different issues like mother and child health care, awareness among adolescents and giving trainings to the farmers. Thereafter for the livelihood generation and entitlements among the community both the farm and non farm activities are being promoted. Among farm activities we do land development, crop demonstration, development of kitchen garden, community nutritional kitchen garden, agro horticultural plantation and development of grain banks in every village. Among non farm activities we promote rice business, rice processing, grocery shops, NTFP collection and its value addition and other entrepreneur activities through SHGs. Finally for the increased immune system to fight against the silent killer regular health camps, immunization of the children and mothers are done together with the distribution of nutrient enriched food along with the training on preparing the nutrient enriched food at home.