Madagascar - Education in nutrition - Enfants du Monde Madagascar - Education in nutrition - Enfants du Monde
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Madagascar

Nutrition Education

1 in 2

children under 5 is malnourished

75%

of the population lives below the poverty line

810

school children made aware in 2022

Preventing Malnutrition in Schools

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world, with nearly 75% of the population living below the poverty line. In 2019, the country was classified by the International Food Policy Research Institute as having an ‘alarming level of hunger’. Currently, nearly 2 million children under the age of 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition, making malnutrition one of the greatest challenges facing Madagascar.

Our Impact
  • Around 30 teacher trainers trained in Ambanja, who will in turn train other teachers and put the materials into practice to promote good eating habits among pupils and their families.
  • More than 1,000 children and their families (around 5,000 people) made aware of the issue.

Sylvia Newkeze, Principal of Mangafally private preschool

This project is important to us and to the children as we learn how to better cook local food. The teaching manuals allow us to deepen our knowledge of good nutrition and make us autonomous in transmitting this knowledge to our school children.

Project Photos

Teaching the Principles of Healthy and Nutritious Eating

Since January 2021, Enfants du Monde, in collaboration with our NGO partner CO.P.E. (Cooperazione Paesi Emergenti / Cooperation for the Development of Emerging Countries), has been supporting a one-year pilot project on nutrition education in three primary schools in Ambanja, in the north of the country.

Following encouraging initial results, the experiment will be extended to 2022 and 2023.

To combat malnutrition, our team has developed various manuals and games so that teachers can teach pupils the principles of a healthy and nutritious diet.

A guide for teachers, combining theory and practice. The guide contains basic information on nutritional principles, hygiene and malnutrition, as well as fun activities to do in class. The aim is to change the eating habits of pupils and their families.

A comic book for children, based on three Madagascaran characters with whom pupils can easily identify. They learn about the principles of a healthy, nutritious and varied diet that is adapted to local eating habits.

Mobilizing Experts in the South and in the North

The guide and comic book were developed through a participatory process between Enfants du Monde’s health team based in Geneva and the team in Madagascar, in order to draw on each other’s expertise.

In Madagascar, the headmistress of a private school, a midwife, the director of the school health district and teachers contributed their knowledge of local eating habits, local products and their use.

In Switzerland, in addition to our health specialist, a doctor, a nutritionist and education specialists were mobilised to develop the educational materials.

Terre Innovative Healthcare in Italy provided graphic design expertise.

Preview of the teaching guide developed for teachers for classroom activities.
Raising Awareness Within the Community

Enfants du Monde has trained around 30 teacher trainers in Ambanja, who will in turn train other teachers and put the materials into practice to promote good eating habits among pupils and their families. This will raise awareness among more than 1,000 children and their families (around 5,000 people).

Warda Razafindravelo, midwife and coordinator for the health part of the project « Preventing child malnutrition in Madagascar

I enjoyed training teachers so that they can then, through fun activities, help children discover how to eat well and why it is important.

 

To support the project beyond the classroom and reach families and communities, the themes covered in the guide for teachers (nutritional principles, hygiene, malnutrition) will be featured in radio programmes with contributions from groups of parents.

In parallel, and before the end of 2022, a jury of students and teachers will organise a cooking competition in which families will participate. The meals will be judged on the basis of criteria relating to their nutritional value and the use of local products. The winners will receive ingredients to make several healthy meals at home.

Pupils will also be involved in staging a play based on the comic strip developed for the project. They will draw inspiration from the story of a brother and sister who discover the principles of good nutrition and their friend who does not eat well. Pupils from a class of older children will perform the play by 24 December 2022.

A vegetable garden project, which would be managed by the children during school terms, is also being considered. The food knowledge and practices of the pupils and their families were assessed at the start of the project and will be measured again regularly to determine their progress.

Overview of the Comic Book Booklet Developed for Students and Their Families
Identifying Cases of Malnutrition

To complement these malnutrition prevention efforts, our partner Terre Innovative Healthcare has developed an Android app for screening and monitoring malnutrition in children at the three schools in Ambanja.

Giovanna Stancanelli, Director at Terre Innovative Healthcare, explains that the app, designed for health workers, allows them to record children’s progress using parameters such as age, height, weight, temperature and other observations on their general state of health. This information is synchronised in a database accessible to authorised personnel and alerts them to any problematic cases.

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With 75 francs:

I provide bilingual school manuals in French and Mooré (the local language) for 10 children in Burkina Faso, enabling them to make better progress at school.

With 140 francs:

I’m helping 700 pregnant women in Bangladesh to prepare for the birth of their baby and the risks associated with childbirth.

With 200 francs:

I fund a continuing education training in bilingual education for 17 teachers in Guatemala, to improve the quality of their lessons.

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