Rati's Green Ribbon
On a bright morning, from a distance appears a group of mothers with quick steps walking to the office of South Oenenu Village. There are mothers holding their children. Among the mothers, there is a mother with her daughter, Rati.
Last September 2013, the weight of the four year old child was only 12.5 kg, in the yellow category according to Card Toward Healthy (Kartu Menuju Sehat/KMS). It meant that Rati was considered as malnourished child.
Rati and her mother were referred to attend Wahana Visi Indonesia's nutrition post to rehabilitate Rati's nutrition status. Wahana Visi works with Nimasi Community Health Center (Puskesmas) to hold the ten day activity.
During the activity, Nelly, Rati's mother, and 8 other participants learn about nutrition and cleanliness. They bring along with them food ingredient to practice healthy cooking. Rati and other children joining the class enjoy healthy food prepared by their mothers.
A month after the rehabilitation class, Wahana Visi and Nimasi Community Health Center monitor nutrition status of the children previously attended the class. Rati shows significant increase in her weight.
"Before joining nutrition post, Rati was reluctant to eat and continues to lose weight so she was categorized as malnourished child. After attending nutrition post, Rati began to enjoy eating and her weight goes up every month," says Nelly.
Rati has reached green category according to Card Toward Healthy and is now considered as well nourished child.
"The presence of nutrition post has improved children's nutrition status from malnourished into well nourished. I hope we can have more opportunities to cooperatein the future, so there will be no malnourished children in South Oenenu Village," ungkap Maria A. S. Samalelo (Tenaga Pelaksana Gizi Puskesmas Nimasi).
Wahana Visi's nutrition post is an approach to overcome nutrition problem. Through this approach, mothers or caregivers of malnourished children can learn how to improve children's nutrition status.