Sujawal:
Embedding their hungry babies, a group of mothers mixes a dish of Sémina under the direction of a teacher, an attempt to brake malnutrition which affects nearly one in two children in southern Pakistan.
Despite the Sindh province which houses the mega port city of Karachi, the country’s financial center which extends along the Arab coast, children in rural areas a few hours are faced with striking levels of waste and growth delay.
In the arid village of Sujawal, the lethargic children with prominent bones make up in the burning heat while social workers educate mothers on the ingredients rich in nutrients and dissipate myths around food.
“Before, we only gave our children the potatoes because they were still available at home,” said Shahnaz, 25, who radically changed the diet of his six children, weak and often sick, after a year of lessons.
Now convinced that children should have a varied diet, she has introduced affordable ingredients such as lenses and semoline in her kitchen, taking her daughter out of malnutrition.
In the province of poor rural Sindh, 48% of children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition and 20% of its most serious, wasting form, according to the last national survey on the question conducted in 2018.
In this class, Azma, a social worker, shows mothers how to cook with Semolina – easily available on the market.
“Semolina is cheap-for 50 rupees, it can last a week if you feed one to two spoonfuls per day to a six-month-old child,” she told AFP.
In the Sindh, a province of 55 million people where contraception remains taboo and large families are the standard, 3,500 mothers have benefited from cooking courses developed by UNICEF.
Like many mothers in the region, Kulsoom, 23 years old and pregnant with his sixth child, all born prematurely and in weight insufficiency, only fed his children with flat fried bread.
“One of my children has died and my youngest is extremely weak, so I was advised to take these courses,” said Kulsoom, who has only one name, like most women in his district.
No spices
Parents are recommended to nourish babies with solid foods of about six months, but in rural Sindh, this often means adult remains, too spicy for young stomachs.
“The main problem is the lack of food diversity,” said Mazhar Iqbal, a nutritionist for UNICEF.
In Pakistan, 38% of children eat only two or less of the eight food categories recommended by UNICEF.
Meat is saved for special occasions, but inexpensive protein alternatives exist such as chicken offs, bulls, lenses and beans.
As for fruits and vegetables, they are generally fried, losing their nutrients.
Bakhtawar Kareem joined the program after the death of his child of anemia.
“I have no money. Sometimes we eat, sometimes we don’t do it,” she deplored, scanning the swollen belly of her one-year-old daughter, who has only clear hair tufts.
Like 72% of children in the village, her daughter has a growth retardation, well above the average rate in Pakistan by 42% – one of the highest in the world.
Growth delay is most closely associated with brain development and physical growth, and can have long -term physical and mental impacts.
Vulnerable to a lack of drinking water and sanitation which contributes to malnutrition, children often also suffer from dengue or malaria, vomiting, diarrhea or difficulty to urinate, and have abnormally swollen needles.
Women eat remains
But the vicious circle of malnutrition begins with mothers.
“With early weddings and repeated pregnancies, more than 45% of women in Sindh are anemic,” said the nutritionist.
“This increases the risk of having low birth weight babies, which are more likely to suffer from malnutrition.”
In Sujawal, where only a quarter of the population can read and write, the myths on food also deprives women of vital nutrients.
Farrah Naz, the head of the world alliance for better nutrition in Pakistan, must regularly repeat that eggs and dried fruits do not make women more bleed during their period.
Cultural standards around women first serving meals for men and eating the remains – despite the physical work they do in the fields – also contributes to poor health.
“And when food runs out, their rations are cut first.”
