Name of the project:

Nutrition Awareness and Support Services (NASS)

 

Duration: 3 years

 

Funded by: World Bank

 

Managed by: Social Development Fund (SDF) of Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh

 

Implementation area: (Geographical Coverage):

175828 poor extreme poor households in 1050 villages at 15 upazilas across 5 districts

 

Target audience/ beneficiaries (if any specific):

  • Pregnant women/ lactating mother
  • < 5 children
  • adolescent girls
  • Care Givers (mother-in-laws) 

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NASS is a component of Nuton Jibon Livelihood Improvement Project (NJLIP) of Social Development Foundation (SDF) of the Bangladesh Ministry of Finance.  NASS component has been implemented by Partners in Health and Development (PHD) in Mymensing Region covering 15 upazilas of 5 districts. The project is funded by World Bank and The People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Aim

The project aims to raise awareness, improve attitudes and practices that enhance nutritional outcomes for targeted beneficiaries and to support them in optimizing nutrition through their livelihood activities. 

Outcomes

The project is expecting 6 specific outcomes:

  1. Improved capacity of Nutrition Support Committees (NSC) to mobilize the community and deliver messages on nutrition in collaboration with Health, Family Planning and Nutrition Service Providers and Agriculture Extension Service Providers
  2. Improved child feeding and caring practices for children under 2 years of age within targeted households
  3. Improved maternal health care practices
  4. Increased households’ access to and utilization of nutrition specific services and support delivered by government, other NGOs/INGOs and private sector
  5. Improved households’ access to nutritious food through promoting homestead farming and utilizing increased family income
  6. Increased the visibility and positioning of nutrition at the community level

To achieve the outcomes, the project focuses on the following outputs:

  1. NSC members’ knowledge on key nutrition issues including health, dietary diversity and care practices improved
  2. NSC members’ skills in delivering nutrition messages through group discussion and community engagement strengthened
  3. NSC members’ capability in increasing access of primary targets to nutrition and health services and other entitlements enhanced 
  4. Community Nutrition Volunteers from unemployed youths are trained and engaged for delivering Nutrition messages at the household (HH) level
  5. Hand washing practices adopted in every targeted HHs and access to hand washing stations ensured
  6. Effective and innovative educational and communication materials/tools for communicating Nutrition developed, adapted and finally applied
  7. Nutrition Social, behavioral change communication (SBCC) customized and translated into Community Operation Manual (COM) for better inclusion
  8. Nutrients rich food production promoted under Homestead Farming through integration with Livelihood component of NJLIP
  9. One-time input (support) to every HH provisioned for distributing Seeds and Tippy Taps
  10. Nutrition SBCC package aligned with National standards and recommendations through consultation with respective government directorates
  11. Lessons and good practices documented and disseminated at National and District level

Locally Invented Low-Cost Hand Wash Station (Tippy Taps)

To encourage hygiene and hand washing behavior at house hold level, NASS has provided locally invented low-cost hand wash station for the targeted HHs.  A total of 175,828 Tippy taps have been provided and setup at household of 1,050 villages. This is to encourage community to habituate to wash hand with soap and water in critical time maintaining six steps.

It is made by a plastic water bottle which is available everywhere in the country.  Taps are provided as symbol to remind the members of the target household to wash their hands at six critical times. Regular follow-up and counseling through home visit and conducting BCC sessions by project field staff and NSC   on personal hygiene and sanitation. Children and adolescent take it as very interesting to themself as it is a new and easy way to wash their hands.  By the continuous follow up, counseling and replacement of Tippy Taps by the household with available plastic bottles, communities are well adopted in improve hygiene and sanitation practices. Which is essentially needed during the current outbreak of COVID19 too.