Dear Jovana,

The attachment in your first post is not in English language. Can you put up an English version, please?

Regards,

F H Mughal

Hello,

For those of you who would like to have more information about the "Benefits of a Household WASH Package to Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) Program in Chad" study we are currently conducting, please follow the link to the clinicaltrials.gov webpage clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02486523?term=WASH&rank=5 , where you can find the study protocol.

Best,

Hi Jovana,

Are you still looking for feedback on these materials? I think that you do a good job of addressing the key areas and I am particularly pleased to see the portion of the guide dedicated to safe child play spaces. I'm wondering if there is a way for you to incorporate larger emotional messages into the tools? Much of the guidance is around keeping the child healthy, which is certainly important, but I know that from the SuperAmma campaign , emotional drivers were more effective at changing hygiene behavior. I imagine you have already seen Om Prasad Gautam's work on food hygiene , but if not it might also be useful. If you'd like to discuss further please don't hesitate to reach out.

Best,

Hanna

Dear Jovana,

I liked your post, thank you for informing us about this important projects which works across two (or even three) sectors - WASH and nutrition (and health).

You said:

The Action Contre la Faim is currently implementing operational research project called "Benefits of a household WASH package to Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM)" program in Kanem region in Chad

Could you tell us a bit more about the size and time frame of this research? I.e. from when to when, what budget do you have (roughly) and how large with the surveyed groups be?

What will be included in the “household WASH package”?

I am really interested in this topic, although I am still very much a novice. Recently I re-organised some content on Wikipedia and created a new page on "Malnutrition in children":
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malnutrition_in_children

If you have suggestions on further content for this article or other improvements, I would be keen to hear them.

I have been asking around for some additional photos for this article. I like those that show "everyday" malnutrition (rather than acute cases) and also would like to include some positive examples of how to overcome it.

This is the only photo in this article so far (I got it from the Philippines):

Malnutrition due to soil-transmitted helminthiasis (Philippines) by Sustainable sanitation , on Flickr


Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear colleagues,

The Action Contre la Faim is currently implementing operational research project called: “Benefits of a household WASH package to Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) program” in Kanem region in Chad. The objective of the research is to demonstrate in a robust way a better performance and reduction in relapse rates in severe acute malnutrition cases discharged from the nutrition rehabilitation outpatient treatment program (OTP) due to the WASH intervention. This will be tested through a randomized control trial conducted by the ACF and partners.

The expected outcomes of the WASH intervention are following:
- Improvement of the water quality in the household of the malnourished children admitted in outpatient treatment programme (OTP);
- Improvement of the hygiene related care practices in the household of the malnourished children admitted in outpatient treatment programme (OTP);

This will be achieved through:
1. Provision of a “household WASH package” to each malnourished child and his/her caregiver included in the OTP program in the health centers targeted by the intervention;
2. Initial and weekly hygiene promotion session provided to the child caregiver in the health center;
3. A household visit conducted by village’s community health volunteers and the ACF intervention staff during the treatment, to provide refresh training on the messages and the use of the kit.

Regarding the weekly hygiene promotion sessions, we prepared a training material “Boite a images” in order to promote and disseminate the 7 hygiene messages which are the main focus of the project:

1. Systematic hand washing with soap for the child caretaker, after defecation, contact with human or animal fecal material, and before preparing / serving food;
2. Wash the child with soap, particularly hands, face, bottom and feet;
3. Cleaning and rapid burial of children's stools;
4. Drinking water provided to the malnourished child should be water treated with chlorine (Aquatabs) or boiled;
5. Safe transport and storage of drinking water;
6. Once weaned, avoid giving to the child leftover food, or only after warming it again;
7. Allocate a protected space for children to play, limiting the likelihood of them ingesting soil or animal feces;

We would like to kindly ask you to have a look at it and provide you feedback and comments. We are very much aware that these images could be improved, as they are for the moment a patchwork of various materials used in Sahel for hygiene or nutrition promotion. We have approach CASWT to see if they would be interested in developing such material for various contexts, waiting for their feedback, but if you see another way, or would like to be involved in the development of an IEC kit for WASH and nutrition, please let us know.

In the meantime, feel free to use this materiel if you think it can be useful for your project.

Thank you.