Nutrition has always been a passion of mine. As a CorpsAfrica Volunteer, I got the opportunity to facilitate the family-led MUAC (Mid-Upper Arm Circumference) approach as a new frontier in fighting malnutrition, especially in rural communities.

My community integration in Kyerero village, Kabale district involved doing home visits to understand the community needs better. One morning during my rounds, I met Madam Vivian a caregiver of Emmanuel, a one-year-old showing signs of acute malnutrition. I discovered that she had run out of RUFT (Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food) for two months explaining why Emmanuel’s condition was not improving.

Drawing on my experience in children’s nutrition, I trained Madam Vivian on how to prepare a nutritious porridge, known as Kitobero (literally meaning a mixture of things), using locally available and affordable food items. We incorporated silverfish for animal proteins, roasted groundnuts for plant protein, yellow banana for natural sugars, and millet flour which is rich in protein and calcium.

After several interactions with Madam Vivian, I connected her with a health worker to obtain the MUAC tape for ongoing monitoring. I also introduced the family MUAC approach to the community, empowering families to assess their children’s nutritional status at home. Within 3 weeks of consistently using the Kitobero, baby Emmanuel’s condition improved from Red to Yellow.  After another month and a week, he had improved to Green indicating significant recovery. Inspired by this visible progress, 15 other mothers expressed interest and were subsequently trained in preparing Kitobero making and using the Family MUAC approach.

The Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) measurement is a critical tool that health workers use quickly to assess whether a patient is acutely malnourished. During my service, I initiated a family-led MUAC approach to combat malnutrition in my community of service.

I trained mothers on how to identify early signs of malnutrition and use the Mid-Upper Arm Circumference tape effectively. Together, we developed a record template for monthly MUAC readings, enabling consistent monitoring of each child’s progress. By empowering mothers and caregivers to perform this task as effectively as health workers, we were able to detect malnutrition at a manageable stage, reducing the need for hospitalization and preventing death.

Additionally, I conducted a training session on how to prepare homemade nutritious porridge (Kitobero) to aid in the recovery process of the already malnourished children.

Imagine if all mothers and caregivers across our country and continent possessed this knowledge, child malnutrition cases could be significantly reduced.