By Denise Lee
Also posted at www.summerinsauri.wordpress.com
No, not that Hilary Clinton, the one I met was a little boy (yes a boy) living in Nyamninia sub-location in the Sauri Millennium Village Cluster. I met him during a house visit with a community health worker (CHW) who was conducting a mass nutrition screening of all children under five in her catchment area. In the past, CHWs in the area were volunteers providing basic health advice and services, when MVP began operations a core part of their health strategy was to establish a network of professional CHWs providing them with training, a small stipend and greater responsibility and accountability. In addition to mass nutrition screenings four times per year, CHWs in the MVP cluster also test and treat malaria in children under 5, treat children with diarrhea with oral rehydration salts and zinc, monitor pregnancies, sensitize households on water and sanitation, provide advice on family planning and give referrals for pneumonia and other more serious health issues. For the past 7 months, the CHWs have been utilizing a new mHelath platfrom, ChildCount+ which uses SMS messages to monitor and track malnutrition as well as malaria and other childhood illnesses in children under 5.
Back to the mass screening, it’s part of the MVP strategy of community-based management of acute malnutrition. Four times a year the CHWs go from household to household measuring the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) of all children under 5. They then send a short text that encodes the results of the visit to the ChildCount+ platform – a low MUAC would result in a response instructing the CHW to refer the patient to the clinic for therapeutic or supplementary feeding. Although the CHW most likely already knew what to do, the ChildCount+ system processes the information in a database that makes monitoring faster and easier.
Hilary’s MUAC did not indicate undernutrition, but it had dropped from 210mm to 168mm prompting the CHW to inquire about Hilary’s health and eating habits. Hilary’s mother mentioned he had been sick recently, the CHW then explained the importance of seeking medical attention in such cases and ensuring a nutritious diet.
