Health Unlimited is working to improve access to wetland resources including agriculture and non-timber forest products, and to improve health and nutrition services for communities in Attapeu province.
The project is called Food Security: Healthy Wetlands for Healthy Women, Children and Men. It was supported by the European Union.
According to a report from project manager Dr Phongchanh Phongtraychack, about 70 percent of children aged between one and five in 24 targeted villages in Xaysettha, Sanxay and Phouvong districts lacked proper nutrition.
“We’re working with provincial and district health departments, the agriculture sector and the Lao Women’s Union. Our target groups are basically everyone in the community,” she said.
Dr Phongchanh said the project had strengthened the capacity of local women to carry out community activities, with a focus on food knowledge, food resources, and healthy nutrition for women and children under the age of five.
The major aim of the project is to monitor community initiatives addressing health and nutrition needs, which is also part of the national poverty reduction plan for 2020.
“Our approach is empowerment, focusing on building capacity at the community level to enable communities to identify and address their health needs, and be advocates for their right to health and services,” she said.
Dr Phongchanh said the project was also working with local authorities to strengthen education, improve primary healthcare for local people, improve infrastructure and develop farming and livestock industries.
In the past, many families in these districts struggled to grow enough rice and vegetables to eat, but a programme run by Health Unlimited three months ago has allowed many families to improve their living conditions.
The project helped mothers to monitor the growth of their children (using standard charts and weighing scales) and ensure that they knew the signs of malnutrition to look out for.
In 2008, 24 households undertook agricultural and forestry training courses provided by the organisation.
This year, with Health Unlimited’s food security project further supporting the villages, it is expected the trainees will use what they have learnt to develop their communities.
Some families still have insufficient rice to eat, mainly because they continue to undertake traditional practices, such as slash and burn cultivation and forest hunting.
This year farmers in the region will rotate crops of rice, fruit, onions, cucumbers, peas, and sweetcorn.
Dr Phongchanh said there used to be many hectares of rice fields, but earnings were low as local people lacked experience in farming.
“The project has encouraged villagers to develop and diversify their farming practices,” she said.
The project will run for 30 months.
In the first two years residents are being encouraged to increase livestock numbers using fish, chicken, frogs, cows and pigs provided by the project.
To achieve national poverty eradication goals, Dr Phongchanh said the project would cooperate with local authorities to implement the government’s policy of grouping small villages into larger units to enable people to work more efficiently towards moving out of poverty.
The districts are on track to wipe out poverty by 2020, and will be declared model districts of healthcare in the next six years, Dr Phongchanh said.
By Vientiane Times Reporters
November 21, 2009
