21st July, 2011 The Project Support Unit (PSU) of Prime Foundation conducted a three-day workshop on Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) , at Peshawar Medical College on 19th July -21st July, 2011.
The Director PSU, Dr.Saeed Anwar bid welcome to the participants. While highlighting the importance of nutrition in human health, he mentioned that 54% of diseases in children are associated with malnutrition.
Dr. Anwar Jamal, master trainer for CMAM,explained to the participants that key objective of this program is to lessen the disease burden due to malnutrition in the community.
The topics that were covered over three days included nutrition,malnutrition,nutritional assessment, classification and management of acutely malnourished children and mothers.He discussed the causes of malnutrition (chronic and acute), techniques of anthropometric measurement,and clinical manifestations of malnutrition. The workshop also trained the participants in issues related to social mobilization,advocacy,mapping and health education of the community.
Dr. Noman Akhtar, who was co-facilitating the workshop, said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a high death rate due to malnutrition, and the main reasons behind this are illiteracy and poverty.He delivered interactive sessions at the workshop on health education, interpersonal communication, recording procedures, social mobilization and distribution of supplements and food items among the patients.
The third day of the workshop included a field visit to Jalozai IDP Camp, Nowshera where the participants practiced the skills learnt during the workshop in real life situation. The workshop ended with a certificate distribution ceremony at Peshawar Medical College.
The workshop participants are team members of a new project of Prime Foundation which aims to address the malnutrition problems of Charsadda district. The project is being run through funding provided by Pakistan Islamic Medical Association in collaboration with Al-Khidmat FoF Hospital, Charsadda.
