Korkus celebrates “Poshan Mah”; pledges to fight against a deep-rooted enemy

The thirty days long nutrition festival concluded on 30^th September. Korkus celebrated national nutrition month to promote the theme “Nutrition keeps you Shining” pledging to continue fighting their deep-rooted enemy “Kuposhan” (malnutrition).

Caritas India Sabal program in collaboration with Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) department raised community awareness about nutrition and healthy eating habits. The nutrition month was observed to conscientize the Korku community on the importance of nutritional and adaptive eating habits to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Korkus especially the pregnant women, lactating mothers and mothers of under-5 children actively participated in the event. The celebrations continued for 30 successive days at cluster and village levels. The nutrition month was observed through 12 cluster level and 98 village-level programmes thereby covering all the 141 Sabal targeted villages.

2061 mothers and 932 children participated in the “Poshan Mah” (Nutrition Month) celebration which was organized by the Sabal team with the joint support of 262 grassroots workers. These institutional workers included 150 Anganwadi workers, 56 Anganwadi Helpers, 35 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), 16 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) and other Government Officials which included Supervisors, Village Heads etc. The celebrations were organized in the Anganwadi building which was voluntarily offered by the Government officials for Sabal programme initiatives.

The celebrations started with conscientizing the Korku mothers on maternal & child health and nutrition with Sabal flipbook followed by organizing “Weighing Festival” and “Healthy Baby Competitions”. The healthiest baby and the mother were rewarded and were motivated to share their testimonies for encouraging fellow mothers also to take good care of their children.

The mothers then marched from door-to-door collecting locally available food resources in “Poshan Palki” (nutrition cradle) for preparing traditional delicacies. The elderly women were motivated to share their traditional secrets of nutrition through “Dadi ka Chula” (Granny’s Hearth) – a gesture to revive the forgotten traditional nutritional recipes of the tribe and to teach the new generation mothers to learn and adopt.

The institutional workers were nowhere in the backfoot seeing the enthusiasm of the community and their active participation. They joined in the celebrations by creating awareness through rallies raising slogans and singing jingles on nutrition and healthy lifestyles. They volunteered for teaching the mothers for preparing various local delicacies like Sattu, fried bread from moringa leaves, delicious curries and sweets from Mahua (Madhuca Longifolia) etc.

The celebrations concluded with the distribution of nutrition baskets to the high-risk mothers, healthy baby posters to pregnant ladies, and motivating the dropout mothers and children to resume Anganwadi services and Government entitlements through enrolments.