WIN Foundation focuses on building  “Pull”  or Demand for Nutrition and hygiene within communities, in parallel to the nutri-preneur development for the Push or Supply. There is widespread lack of awareness on health and hygiene among poor communities. The government has created an excellent system of Asha workers and Anganwdi workers. Our Field health worker training aims at continuous updates and motivation, to ensure effective counselling.

Comprehensive Training on “First 1000 days – Maternal & Child Nutrition” for Health Workers over 3 days covering technical and counseling skills on Maternal, Infant & Young Child Nutrition (1st 1000 days) to prevent malnutrition in mothers and children thereby preventing underweight, stunting & wasting.

Our partners in this movement against malnutirion include, Dr. Rupal Dalal, (Director of Maternal & Child Health at  SMDT  and Adjunct Faculty for Nutrition at CTARA, IIT Bombay), also Mahila Housing Trust (SEWA), Ahmedabad, Samerth Charitable Trust, Ahmedabad (Sanand area) Saath livelihoods, Ahmeabad (Vasna area),  Arid and Communities Technologies(ACT) , Khabhaliya area, Dwarka Dist., Health Department, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation,  covering 7 zones across Ahmedabad. We continuously explore for more NGO partners to expand this training in other areas of Gujarat

So far WIN Foundation has sponsored over 4000 field health workers training and also sponsored creation of many videos under the spoken tutorials for health, IIT Bombay. 

Overall Training Objectives::

• To empower Filed Health workers as master trainers with the technical knowledge of Infant & Young Child Nutrition & counselling techniques, including mother’s nutrition, breastfeeding, and supplementary feeding after 6 months of birth.

•  To make them confident to impart the same training to their colleagues and to caregivers of young infant and children.

• To help caregivers to help their children to survive and thrive, so that they reach their physical and intellectual potential, by improving their knowledge of health, hygiene and nutrition and child development.

• To reduce the incidence of malnutrition through regular data collection on child growth, prevention, raise alters for early detection and treatment; thereby reducing the incidence of stunting, wasting and associated ill health.

Training Methodology and Content:

SMDT has developed  “First 1000 Days” Training of the Trainers (‘TOT”) module tailored to the Health Care workers. The training approach is based on the principles of Skill development in breast feeding and complementary feeding counselling as well as nutrition Counselling in pregnant and lactating mothers. In-depth learning of the critical window period, pregnancy and nutrition and its role in the growth and Prevention of disease in a child is included. This comprehensive knowledge of the science of breast-feeding and complementary foods empowers the participants to deliver evidence-based dietary guidelines to tackle malnutrition at every stage of the first 1000 days of a child and beyond, and subsequently track growth of children at regular intervals. An interactive Training approach involves hands-on practicals to prepare them to impart high quality training to their co-workers as well as their beneficiaries. The module employs a variety of training methods, including demonstrations, discussions, case studies, critical thinking, team building, drama, role-play and problem solving. Participants are encouraged towards inquiry-based learning and sharing of experiences. The focus is on behavior change communication training, so that they feel empowered to convince caretakers to adopt the latest evidence-based advice. 

Learning Materials

Extensive pictorial and easy to use learning materials includes printed large format guides, charts and easy to use videos. These materials are useful for: .

1. Learning by Health workers / Master Trainers during the training, and to revise learning

2. Use same materials to counsel mothers on regular basis.

3. Videos are available to view or download which mothers can view by themselves later.

Topics covered during trainings are:

1. Science of nutrition

2. Importance of the first 1000 days 

3. Essential nutrition action (ENA)

4. Counselling techniques for behavior change

5. Pregnancy support counselling on health and nutrition

6. Breast crawl

7. Breast feeding technique 

8. Breast feeding difficulties

9. Breast conditions

10. Breast feeding counselling techniques

11. Not enough milk: usual scenario

12. New-born care

13. Minor illness of new-born/young child

14. Guideline of complementary feedings

15. Foods rich in minerals and vitamins, and their recipes

16. Nutrition guidelines in pregnancy and for lactating mothers

17. Behaviour issues of children during meals

18. Safe preparation of meals and importance of good sanitation

19. Myths busting

20. Growth charts

21. Growth monitoring and how to pick up if growth falters

Benefits/Anticipated Outcomes

• Empowerment of the whole community to promote and maintain health, through understanding the importance of early nutrition and hygiene practices  for infant and young child nutrition.

• Evidence-based skill building of breast feeding and appropriate complementary feeding, thereby preventing devastating acute as well chronic malnutrition in children.

• Understanding the techniques of breast feeding positioning and latching, thereby improving the weight and length gain in the baby.

• Understanding the technicalities of beast crawl and importance of colostrums, hence initiating breast-feeding within half hour of birth.

• Increased demand for nutritious food and food ingredient, reduced consumption of junk food and empty calories, thereby improving both short and long-term health outcomes.

• With better nutrition, children will be more likely to reach their physical and intellectual potential.

• Understanding the importance of eating traditional foods and recipes not only for pregnant and lactating mothers, but also for children starting from 6 months of age.

• Knowledge of cooking techniques, which increases nutrient content as well as digestibility of food preparations.

•  Understanding the behaviour issues of children in relation to food and managing them effectively and confidently.

•  Understanding science- and evidence-based feeding practices to reduce myths and doubts.

• Make this knowledge and practices owned by community, to improve health and nutrition of the children and others, and pass on this knowledge for future generations.

WIN Foundation has sponsored several health spoken tutorials. They are available in multiple Indian languages, on an open source basis and can be used for training, self-learning and counselling at all levels. The IIT Bombay Spoken Health Spoken Tutorial cover vast number of topics on nutrition. They are available in multiple Indian languages, on an open source basis and can be used for training, self-learning and counseling at all levels.

Spoken Tutorial  Project group at IIT Bombay, developed the following tutorials :

•     ​ Vegetarian recipes for pregnant women.​

•     ​ General guidelines for complementary feeding.​

•     ​ Complementary feeding for 6 to 24 month old babies.​

•     ​ Magnesium rich vegetarian recipes.​

•     ​ Protein rich vegetarian recipes.​ 

Many more.....

Dubbing  done in 10 languages – Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi,Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Assamese and Manipuri.   

WIN Foundation also part-sponsored the Child Nutrition Lab at CTARA, IIT Bombay, a complementary project for nutrition, to provide food based local nutritive recipes, which local communities can make at home or through self-help groups. 

Spoken tutorials are created by the Spoken Tutorial Project Group at IIT Bombay, for self-learning with usage of audio-visual screen-casts. The duration of the tutorials are usually 10-12 minutes and are available in major Indian languages. The tutorials can be downloaded and used offline without internet access. The tutorials are on exclusive breastfeeding, recipes for complementary feeding, pre-pregnancy, adolescence, nutrition during pregnancy, nutrition during lactation, junk foods & health, science of nutrition and safety & food hygiene.

These tutorials are aimed at training of field health workers, training of mothers by Health workers, and self training.