MACHAN
Mother And Child Health And Nutrition
MACHAN works towards ensuring that every child is healthy, nourished, and secure
Through MACHAN we address pressing issues such as mother and child health, basic hygiene, and life-threatening childhood illnesses, and provide support to the community to empower themselves and child protection. It is a holistic model that bridges the multi-sectoral needs of young children by bringing together families, local partners, health centers, government bodies, communities, and knowledge partners. MACHAN interventions also ensure the well-being of mothers and caregivers.
So far, MACHAN has benefitted 2 million people in 57 districts of India.
MACHAN's Approach
Community Matters
Mentor Mothers as Change Agents
We identify mothers from within a community and train them to be ‘Mentor Mothers’. These mothers are strong women leaders who empower and motivate other mothers to improve health, hygiene, and nutrition of both children of 0–5 years and for themselves. Mentor Mothers conduct door-to-door awareness drives as well as group sessions in their communities.
In 2019-20, more than 500 mothers became Mentor Mothers who created a support system for more than 60,000 mothers in India.
Nurturing Care Through Mother Committees
We facilitate committees of mothers and train them on maternal and child healthcare and nutrition, stimulation & responsive parenting and caregiver’s well-being. These mother committees enhance a community’s awareness and encourage positive behavioral changes. These Committees undertake community-based monitoring and link caregivers and children with relevant government schemes and services.
Promoting Healthy Behaviors – WASH
WASH (Water, Sanitation & Hygiene) focuses on improving access to WASH-centric facilities and mitigating water-borne health hazards through mass awareness, material support, and home visits. The intervention establishes automated water purification units, owned and operated by the community in remote regions and experiencing marginalization. Additionally, WASH engages mothers’ groups, self-help groups, and village governing body members to develop community-based monitoring systems and promote healthy and sustainable behaviors.
Local Wisdom for Enduring Child Care – PD+
Positive Deviance Plus (PD+) aims to create positive behavior change in mothers and communities. Under this, mothers are identified and trained on scientifically proven methods and local wisdom to improve child nutrition and their overall development. Positive Deviants share and demonstrate nutritious recipes from locally available ingredients to improve child nutrition and discover sustainable solutions for continued child care. Also, the Positive Deviants entrust families for ensuring comprehensive development of their children. They train other mothers to promote these successful practices within their communities by organizing PD+ sessions in groups and families.
In 2019-20, more than 678 PD+ sessions were organized in 185 villages and 87 urban slums in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Nurturing Early Childhood Years
First 1000 Days of Life Matter
From birth to a child’s second birthday is the most critical time for their cognitive and physical development. The ‘First 1000 Days of Life’ intervention encourages and supports mothers, families, and healthcare workers towards providing treatments and adopting good practices for a healthy pregnancy. In addition, it identifies and provides support along with treatment to children experiencing chronic malnourishment. The intervention also works with various stakeholders towards providing adequate rest, wage compensation for undernourished mothers, etc.
In 2020, the intervention will be implemented in Alirajpur district in Madhya Pradesh and Gogunda and Udaipur Districts in Rajasthan reaching 30,000 children. Also, according to an external agency assessment in 2020, more than 73% of children under the project achieved normal weight, who were earlier facing malnourishment.
Early Childhood Stimulation and Responsive Parenting
Physical, cognitive, linguistic, socio-emotional and creativity are the five developmental milestones for children from birth to 3 years of age. To achieve these age-appropriate milestones, the intervention uses scientific and creative methods to sensitize, train caregivers and frontline child development workers.
Nutrition and Caregivers Livelihood Security
This intervention focuses on providing a means to increase food production for mothers and caregivers for children under 5 years. It includes activities such as hands-on skills on kitchen gardening and trains mothers/caregivers with financial literacy and supports them with various income-generation activities through allied agriculture activities.
Early Childhood Development Centers
Through this intervention we have transformed thousands of government-run Anganwadis with adequate infrastructure to provide access to better health, nutrition and a high-quality stimulating environment to children from 3 to 6 years to further children’s developmental milestones.
Caring for Differently Abled
Children with Special Needs
Through this intervention, we serve thousands of children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in selected urban slums and villages in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The intervention ensures treatment adherence, provision of nutritional supplements and counseling for patient and family for improved health, provides educational support to infected/affected children and livelihood support for parents too. Additionally, we conduct awareness generation among children, parents and caregivers.
The program’s holistic approach towards strengthening early childhood development aligns with at least seven of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The program’s holistic approach towards strengthening early childhood development aligns with at least seven of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
2 Million
Benefitted.
15
States
