Mozambique Health and Nutrition
Our Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) program aims to address the core factors that contribute to preventable deaths. We achieve results through providing technical support to the different levels of the Ministry of Health and by conducting targeted interventions aimed at achieving sustainable and marked improvements in maternal, newborn and child health.
At National level the program is focusing on:
• Advocacy and technical assistance for strengthening policies, protocols and tools based on evidence
At the provincial and district levels the focus is on:
• Strengthening supportive supervision visits of health facilities and community interventions
• Training in the interpretation and use of data for planning
• Financial and technical support for MNCH outreach campaigns
At health facility level the focus is on:
• Training for health care providers on basic emergency medical obstetric care and newborn resuscitation
• Constructing, upgrading and furnishing maternity wards, housing for nurses, and waiting houses for pregnant women so they can spend the last days or weeks of their pregnancy on the facility grounds
• Providing equipment for consultation rooms and maternity wards to facilitate safe and sanitized childbirth and young child care
• Establishing co-management committees, consisting of community members and health facility staff, to design and implement interventions aimed to improve the overall functioning of the facility and ensure quality and compassionate health services.
Enfermeira em acção no interior da província de Gaza. Foto: Manuel Victorino, Save the Children.
At community level the focus is on:
• Establishing community health committees to identify and plan interventions to address key health concerns
• Training volunteers in different areas of technical expertise, focused on improving MNCH results
• Training Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) to monitor pregnant and lactating women and infants, referring those with danger signs and accompanying pregnant women to facilities for childbirth or emergency care
• Training and supporting Community Health Workers (CHWs), an official cadre of the Ministry of Health, focused on providing Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) for malaria, diarrheal diseases and pneumonia in children under five
• Assisting with the establishment of emergency transportation systems for the timely evacuation of emergency cases
• Promoting family planning for birth spacing to promote healthy women and healthy children
Our Adolescent Health Program
• Is focused on providing diversified forms of engagement and support for adolescents, their schools, their communities, and in health facilities, aiming to keep adolescents, particularly girls, in school, while fostering a supportive environment so that they feel empowered to make healthy and informed choices.
• We promote family planning to encourage the delay of first pregnancies and the healthy spacing of pregnancies, and support the prevention, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections including HIV.
Our support includes:
• Training facility-based health care professionals on providing quality Adolescent and Youth-Friendly Services which are also deployed to communities and schools
• Training peer educators in schools and in communities for developing a range of engaging activities for adolescents including individual counselling and linkages to services; the support also includes programs for teachers, parents and communities to create an environment for adolescents that promotes healthy choices
• The adaptation of SC’s innovative Us and Our First Baby curriculum for Mozambique, providing factual and helpful guidance to adolescent parents focused on optimal care of pregnant and lactating mothers and their babies; the materials include family planning to encourage birth spacing and emphasize the role of the father at all stages
• Nutritional support and supplementation for adolescent girls to ensure they are physically healthy in case they were to fall pregnant
• The establishment of a range of support services for adolescents at two of the country’s main border crossings aimed at reducing the incidence of trafficking and reducing their vulnerability to a range of health and socio-economic threats during their travels
Our Nutrition Program
• focuses on tackling malnutrition on multiple levels, from community-based growth monitoring and promotion, home-based counselling, and facility referrals with a focus on permanently changing feeding behaviors. We provide training and support to key staff at health facilities and contribute to the development of new protocols and strategies at the national level.
• Save the Children in Mozambique also implemented an emergency program as part of the COSACA consortium to identify and refer acute malnutrition cases in response to the El Nino.
Our support includes:
• Piloting the community-based distribution of micro-nutrient powder (MNP) for children 6-12 months in two provinces, one through direct distribution and the other through the distribution of vouchers for redemption at local vendors
• Piloting intensive community-based growth monitoring and promotion as part of an extensive community-based nutrition program that includes demonstration cooking, individual counselling, referrals and counter-referrals between communities and health facilities, and follow-up home visits
• The integration of nutrition into Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) projects to enhance overall child mental and physical development
• The integration of specific WASH interventions into nutrition programs, focused on promoting clean spaces and hygienic practices for young children as a targeted method to reduce the incidence of diarrheal diseases and maximize nutrient absorption.
• The provision of technical support to the Ministry of Health at the national level to incorporate evidence from the field into strategies, protocols, and education materials
