Makueni County Government through the Department of Health will carry out a Health Nutrition SMART Survey to determine the status of acute and chronic malnutrition for children aged between 6-59 months between June 26 and July 1, 2023.
The team that will be involved in the exercise will have 18 enumerators, nine team leaders and four Coordinators who will be trained from June 22 to June 25, 2023.
“We intend to visit 53 clusters (villages) throughout the survey period where we target to reach 393 children,” said the County Nutrition Coordinator Ruth Kaloki during a County Steering Group (CSG) meeting on Monday.
“According to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey of 2022, it shows that the children who were below five years who were short for their age, decreased from 25 percent to 20 percent,” Kaloki added.
Further the county coordinator disclosed that a total of Sh 4.5 million will be spent to collect the data from the county.
During the meeting, Kaloki said that other partners who will be playing key roles include the National Government, World Vision, United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Nutrition International, Red Cross and Welthungerhilfe (WHH).
The meeting was also informed that some of the objectives to be achieved through the survey include determining deworming coverage for children aged 12-59 months, find possible drivers of malnutrition such as household food insecurity, water, sanitation and hygiene practices and establish the minimum dietary diversity for women of reproductive age.
Other objectives include assessing the minimum dietary diversity , minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet for children aged 6-23 years and assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of households towards cooking and stepping maize kernels or other grain in calcium hydroxide to mention a few.
On her part, the Assistant County Commissioner (ACC) Nancy Kimutai who chaired the meeting at a hotel in Wote town said that the government will provide the support needed to ensure the exercise is a success.
