Executive Director of the Alola Foundation (FA), Alzira Reis, said in 2016 the organization intends to establish another 39 mother’s support groups (GSI) across the municipality of Dili and in the special administrative region of Oe-cusse.
She said the GSI’s role is very important to introduce the nutrition and birthing plan campaign to the communities in the capital Dili and in Oe-cusse in the belief that a community led approach has best results.
“This year, we will establish another 39 groups in Dili and Oe-cusse as malnutrition in these municipalities is high,’ said Director Reis in her office, Mascarenhas, Dili.
She added, they already support the establishment of 124 groups across 11 municipalities and these are working hard to improve the communities’ knowledge about the importance of mother’s milk, nutrition and a safe birthing plan.
She added that the ministry of health appreciated with their methods of approaching the community.
As part of the nutrition campaign, FA groups also introduce demonstrations on food preparation aimed at educating communities about the value of consuming high nutritious foods.
“We also have a basic nutrition survey and have a malnutrition transferal process we apply when we identify [malnutrition] cases,” she said.
FA’s program is being supported by international organization the World Food Program (WFP), and by Conoco Philips and Woodside.
Meanwhile, the health director of Dili municipality, Agustinha da Costa Saldanha, said FA’s work was a collaborative process that focusses on providing education on nutrition and research.
“We look in depth at the family nutrition status and also take data of malnutrition across Dili municipality,” she said.
She said this work is very important so that the ministry of health can have an accurate statistical data to deliver its program on combating malnutrition in Dili’s municipality.
