Food For Thought Launch (March 2016)

Children receiving their first of many meals on the official launch of MSAP's Food for Thought on March 15, 2016

 

Children enjoying their midday meals

The Food For Thought menu

Day 1: boiled chickpeas with Masala and one fruit

Day 2: Milk (200mL) with BournVita and Chikki

Day 3: Milk (200mL) with BournVita and dates (2-3)

Monitoring

Mr. Kishore Bhinde is the generous middleman who supervises the delivery of food to the children and ensures the funding is used to maximal benefit. Mr. Bhinde has been involved in extensive charitable work previously and has kindly donated his time without a fee. 

In order to monitor the project, baseline and 3 monthly height, weight and mid-upper arm circumference measures have been taken.

Baseline measurements taken on March 15 show:

  • 42% of the girls were below the 3rd percentile for height and 48% girls under 10 were below the 3rd percentile for weight

  • 36% of the boys were under the 3rd percentile for height and 66% of the boys under 10 were below the 3rd percentile for weight

  • 85% of the boys' mid-upper arm circumferences were below the bottom 10th percentile

Review and Eye Checks (September 2016)

food provision review

Six months after launch, MSAP returned to Nadiad in September to measure and review the children's growth. So far, we have found that over the past six months:

  • The children gained 0.73 kg in weight on average. 30% of children have had an increase in weight of more than 1 kg.

  • The children gained 1.6 cm in height on average.

MSAP will continue to provide these meals and perform another review in six months.

Project Officers Sharanya Mohan (left) and Heeral Thakkar (middle) helping in handing out the childrens' meals

Project Officers Sharanya Mohan (left) and Heeral Thakkar (middle) helping in handing out the childrens' meals

eye checks

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Additionally, MSAP conducted eye checks with the help of the local charitable Santram Eye Hospital. The eye check-up camp detected 7 children who required glasses. Check out how excited the kids were to get their new glasses!

Dental Checkups and New Classroom (December 2016)

Home visits

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In December, MSAP visited the school and homes nearby to talk to the parents of children who study at Seem Shala Jibhaipura.

dental check-ups

Screening Dental Check-ups were also performed, which found that more than half of the children had Dental Caries. To address this, MSAP will be focusing one of its upcoming videos on Dental Hygiene

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new classroom

“Food for Thought” has attracted the attention of the mayor of the village and he was so pleased with it that he had sanctioned the building of two new classrooms and installed a bore well for the children. In January, the construction of the classrooms was completed.