Fighting Malnutrition with Community-Based Treatment

By Blandina Bait, Nutrition Officer


UNICEF is supporting the Government of Indonesia to implement the CMAM nutrition programme © UNICEF / 2017

Two-year-old Alfredo had been suffering from persistent diarrhoea for two days when his worried mother, Yosina, took him to the village health center, known as a puskesmas, near their rural farming community in East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia.

The boy was very weak and looked pale; the health worker on duty confirmed that Alfredo had severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

“I was torn and shocked to learn that Alfredo was suffering from severe acute malnutrition,” said Yosina. She was even more alarmed to learn that SAM made Alfredo more vulnerable to diseases which could lead to death.

Yosina did not hesitate when the health worker advised her to enrol him in the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme for children aged 6-59 months. Though the cost of the one-hour round trip ($4) to the puskesmas for Alfredo’s weekly treatment would be a significant expenditure for the family of subsistence rice farmers, she and her husband agreed it was important for the sake of Alfredo’s future.

Roots Day Takes Aim at Bullying in Makassar

By Derry Fahrizal Ulum, Child Protection Officer



Students and I during Roots Day activities at one of the photo booths © Derry Ulum / 2017 

Makassar:“I believe that making friends with everybody is a good way to overcome [the problem of] bullying. When we show our closest friends how to behave positively, it influences all students to want to change just like us”.

The above statement was made by one of 30 student ‘change-makers’ during ‘Roots Day’ at SMPN 37 Middle School in Makassar, a regional port town in the southwest of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island. Roots Day is the culmination of a student-to-student school anti-violence initiative piloted by UNICEF that seeks to eliminate bullying to optimize learning and enhance student safety.