Sujawal:
A group of mothers holding their hungry babies mix a Semulina bowl under the guidance of a teacher, an attempt to limit malnutrition affecting almost one in two children in Pakistan’s south.
Despite the fact that Sindh province is home to Mega Port City of Karachi, the financial center of the country spreading along the Arabic coastline, children in rural areas only a few hours away face sharp levels of waste and stunting.
In the dry village of Sujawal, dull children with prominent bones that will be in the burning heat when social workers educate mothers for nutritious ingredients and expel myths around food.
“Before, we only gave our children potatoes because they were always available at home,” said Shahnaz, 25, who has radically changed the diet for his six children, weak and often sick after a year of classes.
Now convinced that children should eat a varied diet, she has introduced affordable ingredients such as lenses and Semulina in her cooking and lifting her daughter out of malnutrition.
In poor rural areas SINDH Province, 48 percent of children under the age of five suffer malnutrition and 20 percent from its most serious form, according to the latest national survey on the question conducted in 2018.
In this class, Azma, a social worker, mothers, shows how to cook with Semulina – easily accessible on the market.
“Semolina is cheap-for 50 rupees it can be a week if you feed one to two spoonfuls daily for a six-month-old child,” she explained to AFP.
In Sindh, a province of 55 million people where contraception remains taboo and large families are the norm, 3,500 mothers have benefited from cooking classes developed by UNICEF.
Like many mothers in the area, coal, 23 and pregnant with her sixth child, all born prematurely and underweight, first first fed her children pieces flatbread.
“One of my children died and my youngest is extremely weak, so I was asked to take these classes,” said KulSoom, who only goes past a name that most women in her district.
No spices
Parents are recommended to feed babies solid foods from approx. Six months old, but in rural areas this often means adult remains, too spicy to young stomach.
“The biggest problem is the lack of dietary diversity,” says Mazhar Iqbal, a Nutrition Physiologist for UNICEF.
In Pakistan, 38 percent of children eat only two or fewer of the eight food categories recommended by UNICEF.
Meat is stored for special occasions, but still there are cheap proteinaltar natives, such as chicken of offal, cooked bones, lentils and beans.
As for fruits and vegetables, they usually fried and lose their nutrients.
Bakhtawar Kareem joined the program after her child died of anemia.
“I have no money. Sometimes we eat, sometimes we don’t,” she complained and scanned the raised stomach of her one year old daughter who has only sparse hair lumps.
Like 72 percent of children in the village, her daughter has stunted, well above the average rate in Pakistan of 42 percent – one of the highest in the world.
Stunting is most associated with brain development and physical growth and can have long -term physical and mental effects.
Vulnerable to a lack of clean water and sanitation that contributes to malnutrition, children often suffer from dengue fever or malaria, from vomiting, diarrhea or difficulty with urination and have abnormally raised stomachs.
Women eat leftovers
But the evil cycle of malnutrition begins with the mothers.
“With early marriages and repeated pregnancies, more than 45 percent of women in Sindh are anemically,” the nutrition physiologist said.
“This increases the risk of getting babies with low birth weight who are more likely to suffer during malnutrition.”
In Sujawal, where only a quarter of the population can read and write, myths about food also deprive women of vital nutrients.
Farrah Naz, the leader of the Global Alliance for improved nutrition in Pakistan, should regularly repeat that eggs and dried fruits do not cause women to bleed more during their periods.
Cultural norms around women serving meals to men first and eating the remains – despite the physical work they do in the fields – also contribute to poor health.
“And when food runs out, it’s their rations that are first cut.”
