Rtn. Ashwin Shah and I along with Rotaractors Sandhya, Navneet and Chinmaya visited Potkhal/Baste for initiating the first phase of the Child Nutrition Project. The first phase involves tackling the raging problem of malnourishment in the tribal villages of Palghar district. There are about 200 children under the age of five years in Potkhal and Baste. Our aim was to screen all the children for signs of malnourishment as per the norms set by WHO and UNICEF.
We made two teams, one for Potkhal balwadi and one for Baste balwadi. Enthusiasm was great among mothers in the villages. They had all gathered before we reached. We recorded the data for 140 children who were present. 60 children will be screened later.
We found that overall the children of both the villages were in good health. We found about 30 of the 140 children screened showed signs of malnourishment pop over to these guys. They will be now called for final diagnosis by a paediatrician. Once that is done, they will be put on intensive treatment for eight weeks.
We will also start our programme for providing dietary supplements, fortified with vitamins to all 400 children of
Potkhal and Baste every day for one year.
We will also give the women in the village information on how to make healthy and balanced food using local ingredients. Rtn Abuzar Zakir will also provide inputs from dieticians associated with Saifee Hospital. We appreciate Rtn Ashwin Shah’s efforts as well as those of the hardworking Rotaractors.
– Rtn Yogesh Pandya

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