Takhona
This lovely lady is Takhona. Here she is concentrating during the training we gave in her area. It was used by a local paper as part of the media day I wrote about last time. She was so excited to be in the paper she screamed into the phone when I rang to let her know. I’m going to try to get a print to her. This might be a bit difficult as she lives in an extremely remote area—a very rural part of southern Swaziland where road access is poor.
She has a son and volunteers in her local neighbourhood care point (NCP). NCPs are small structures, sometimes supported by a charity, which provide food and basic education for children in the area who are either orphaned or otherwise identified as vulnerable. The children eat together, play together and often can be found singing songs together.
Takhona, which means “she is here,” or, “she belongs here” in the local siSwati language, has become a star. Since she was trained, she has been regularly screening the children who attend the NCP and has identified five children in need of treatment for malnutrition so far.
Screening the children
Takhona helps screen the children for malnutrition. She measures the middle-upper arm circumference to identify children who are acutely malnourished or at high risk of developing malnutrition. She refers them to the clinic as we taught her and then gives us a call to let us know who she has identified.
We then inform the ACF nutritionists, who provide training and support on the care of children with acute malnutrition to the nurses working in the hospitals and health clinics. This way the nutritionists will know to look out for these children next time they conduct training and supervision in the health facilities. For now this monitoring is really necessary because many times the children do not actually attend the clinic after being referred there.
Sometimes the nearest clinic where ACF has trained the nurses in the management of malnutrition is quite far away, and the family does not have money to pay for the transport. In these cases, we get a call from the people we have trained in the communities asking for advice. We encourage participants of our trainings to visit these families at home in order to communicate how important it is for them to get life-saving treatment to their children. If the family is really struggling, we alert the traditional leaders in the area and, if necessary, try to link the families up with organisations that provide other types of support.
In the last nine months we trained 4,180 people in their communities. This is tremendously exciting—for the ACF trainer/nutritionists and also for me! I keep telling them, “Don’t underestimate the importance of the work you are doing”. When someone they have trained in the community identifies children who are malnourished, sends them for treatment, and the children get better, this is the best demonstration for them to believe!
Lucy Ellis
Amelia Lyons
Ashley Sarangi
Rachel Eichholz
Emily Sloane
George Petropoulos
Rachel Roseberry is the Food Security and Livelihoods Program Manager in Karamoja, Uganda, a relatively insecure region that is known for its semi-arid climate and cattle raiding. Rachel’s background is in natural resource management; she has worked in that capacity in Tajikistan, Indonesia, Canada, and now Uganda. 
Bob Bongomin, born in Gulu, northern Uganda, is in his sixth year with Action Against Hunger. He currently manages ACF’s emergency water, sanitation & hygiene program in the Khyber Paktunkhwa province of Pakistan, where thousands of people have been affected by unprecedented flooding. 
Eric Rheinstein is the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Program Manager for Action Against Hunger in Walikale, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He has worked with Action Against Hunger, various NGOs, and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burundi, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Albania, northern Uganda, and Chad.
Keira Lowther is Action Against Hunger’s Head of Community Capacity Building in Swaziland. A paediatric nurse specialising in HIV and public health nutrition, she has worked in paediatric wards in east and central London and with Action Against Hunger in Chad, China and Swaziland. 
Rupert Leighton is the Country Director for Action Against Hunger in Zimbabwe. He has more than 15 years humanitarian experience in countries including Cambodia, Myanmar, El Salvador and Angola.
