Our current Community Based Health Programs are continuing to implement the “Hearth” approach, which introduces positive nutritional behaviour and trains parents of malnourished children to identify and cook nutritious food.

SurfAid’s data shows 83 per cent of malnourished children in Nias and 72 per cent in the Mentawai, who attend Hearth rehabilitation sessions, have gained weight. The “Hearth” or home is the location for the nutrition education and rehabilitation sessions.

Here, Segera Wa’u shares his story about Hearth and talks about what your support has helped him achieve:

"My name is Segera Wa’u and I am 17 years old.

"Since my father has recently passed away I have started to look after my younger brothers - Lakhemi, 44 months, and Sultan, 32 months. They are the ninth and tenth children my mother Ina Mardi has given birth to. When the SurfAid facilitators approached my mother to join the Hearth rehabilitation session she could not see any point and refused to participate. But to me there was something unique and unusual in the Hearth sessions facilitated by SurfAid. I had never seen NGOs work directly with poor mothers like that before in our village."

Looking in from the outside
"After a few days I observed that the Hearth session was good for the weaker children like my brothers, Sultan and Lakhemi.  On the sixth day of the Hearth, while my mother was out, I took my two brothers and two cans of rice (approx ½ kg) as our contribution to participate in the Hearth with the other mothers.

"The other caregivers and Hearth cadres (formal volunteers) welcomed us to join.  They all know my family’s condition and thankfully asked me to only bring firewood next time so I didn’t have to bring rice, which I didn’t have anyway! Every day I brought firewood and coconut which I collected from our coconut trees. After the second week, SurfAid facilitator Mutiara and Ina Anugrah, the head cadre, asked me to be a Hearth cadre. This was a real honour for me."

Family Impacts
"I have now learnt how to cook healthy meals from local ingredients which cost nothing extra to our family. It was difficult to manage Lakhemi and Sultan at the beginning but seeing the care and additional food they got kept me motivated. At home too it is having positive impacts. We now know and understand the importance of hygiene and hand washing and we are keeping our home cleaner than before.

"But best of all my two little brothers have both gained weight - Sultan gained 800 grams and Lakhemi 900 grams over the last two months. They both are no longer severely malnourished and they are cleaner, more energetic and friendlier with other kids. If SurfAid did not help us, I don’t know what would be of them now. Thank you SurfAid!"

There are still many children in the islands suffering from the effects of malnutrition and poor health and this is why we need your help.

In the Mentawai and Nias, current malnutrition rates are 40% and 39% respectively, twice the national average for Indonesia. One of the biggest challenges facing these communities is understanding basic health care practices and ensuring good nutrition for children under five years of age.

Please donate today.