USAID Nurture created 10 small doable actions (SDAs) as a simple tool for target households to strive for integrated nutrition and WASH (iNuW) behaviours. Two of the SDAs focused on early initiation of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding. The SDAs were presented on attractive and informative posters and flipcharts at household visits and shared during community wide events (CWEs) on a quarterly basis to draw attention and improve understanding within the community. The team also distributed portable flip-charts and wall progress charts for reference at home. The events served as initial knowledge dissemination platforms for village iNuW committees to integrate iNuW messages into their monthly mandatory village meetings, and gave the opportunity for community facilitators (CFs) to re-emphasize during their follow-up visits to target households. Starting from 2018, CFs visited 10,379 target households in 471 villages, and revisited more than 8,500 households for three years. During the visits, CFs met with mothers and encouraged participation from husbands and others who provided childcare. During each follow-up visit, CFs marked any adopted SDAs on a progress wall chart as a reminder to track the new practice in the household, and introduced another SDA to the household for their adoption. Strengthening community capacity to deliver health programs, and promote key nutrition and WASH behaviors through the iNuW package and SDAs helped influence child nutrition improvements in Khammouane and Savannakhet where USAID Nurture focused its intervention.
Read more about antenatal care and breastfeeding and nutrition here.