The team arrived at the office of Garden Health International located at Musave , Gasabo district around 11 AM of August 9th, 2018 and was receveid by the Executive Director, Mr Makuza Salomon who made a debifieng of their 2 key programs namely: Health center and Clinical Antenatal (ANC).
The health center is a program aimed at malnourished children under the 5 years . These children are sorted during the campaigns that are carried out in the different health centers partners. Each cohort is composed by 40 children with clinical signs of malnutrition. Chronic (Size / Age) and aims at a whole series grouped in 2 main categories (health with 13 topics and agriculture with 9 topics ) as well as at the level of change of mentality, nutrition, agri culture, family planning,WASH, mental health, ….
The program is based on capacity building on the 22 Topics during 14 weeks. The health program is done at the health center and the agriculture program in the families to help them learn the best practices in the field.This agriculture is based on high energy crops. At the end of the program, graduation is carried out and accompanied for one year. Beneficiaries benefit from selected seeds and small livestock (rabbits or chickens). In terms of nutrition, there is a food preparation model that is well applied. This model was named one pot, one hour, one complete meal. The latter consists of preparing to immerse the beans in water for 8 hours then cook them for 30 minutes, add the foods of the white color (rice, banana, potato, cassava, colocase, etc.) for another 20 minutes and then add the vegetables for 5 minutes and finally is added salt, ndagala and oil for another 5 minutes. This product mix is well balanced nutritionally.
At the farm level, there is a technique to produce organic fertilizers instead of mineral fertilizers. This involves the preparation of a compost in a professional manner and the use of ecological toilets where there is separation of stool and urine. These urine are directly used immediately after dilution to the ¼ for the watering of the fields while the stools are used after 6 months of treatment. We also learned how to monitor and evaluate this field intervention. Indeed,
before each intervention, a basic study is carried out, after the graduation, the evaluation is also carried out and after 2 years the evaluation is completed.
Clinical Antenatal: This is a program that targets pregnant women in the first 1000 days of life according to national policy. This program is to prevent malnutrition from conception until 2 years old.The principle is the same as in the Heath Center but what changes is the target who are pregnant women in the first and second quarter.
The second day of our visit was made to MUSANZE where the organization runs community activities to implement their program. So we arrived around 9 AM o’clock and we were welcomed by the coordinator of the program in MUSANZE, Mr Samuel, after the debriefing of the program, we are where they work with 15 health centers of the district of MUSANZE, we went to visit the families who have been in their program. The first home visit was made to Mrs. Donatile who had followed the program Health center. Arrived in her home, she explained us how she benefited from the program and the successes already collected. Indeed, after having followed the whole program, Mrs. Domitile started with 2 chickens but currently she has 36 laying hens, modern fields of fruits and vegetables. She is able to pay the tuition fees in the guardian on behalf of the program.
Home visit of Domitile Familly The second family visited is that of Mrs. Dative. She has also followed the same program and currently she champions with a cow and fields for vegetables.
Conclusion and recommandation
We appreciated the model used for the fight against chronic malnutrition by Garden Heath International and we are in between exchange internally to adapt the model in Burundi after approval by the national system and contacts are under way to move from a simple exchange of experience in the realization of a long-term partnership Dr Ndayirukiye Jean Pierre ,Directeur exécutif Mr Nibasumba Albert ,SSR-AMAGARA MEZA program manager
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