The Bangladesh government has successfully conducted a two-week long national Vitamin-A Plus campaign to strengthen children’s immune systems and reduce susceptibility to infections - in the middle of a pandemic.
A total of 20.8 million children – 97% of the target – were brought under the nationwide campaign from October 4 to 17, with careful planning and additional safety measures ensured.
The campaign was held over a period of 12 days last year, instead of the usual one-day affair, to avoid large crowds at the distribution centres and to maintain the health safety rules for Covid-19, according to a report released by the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) on Thursday.
“The campaign was adapted to ensure safety for health workers, children and parents while achieving remarkable coverage. This is an important win for children in Bangladesh,” said Tomoo Hozumi, Unicef representative in the country.
The health workers and volunteers ensured infection prevention control practices, including appropriate mask use, physical distancing and handwashing facilities.
The total number of distribution centres was 120,000, the number of health workers was about 240,000, and the number of health service providers was about 40,000.
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Rikta Roy, a health clinic manager, supervised the rollout of the national Vitamin A-Plus campaign in 15 health centres in the south of Dhaka, the capital city.
“This year, everything is different due to Covid-19. Hundreds of people in this area have lost their jobs due to the economic shutdown in March. They have less money to buy milk, eggs or even vegetables for their children,” explained Rikta, health clinic manager at Smiling Sun Franchise Clinic in Dhaka.
The pandemic created multiple shocks for children and families, disrupting daily life, livelihoods and food security.
“I recently saw a young woman with a toddler visibly suffering from undernutrition. I knew that she lost her job as a housemaid in March. It hurt me to tell her to ensure a proper, balanced diet for her baby. How can I ask her to feed fish, meat and eggs to her baby when everything is so expensive?” shares Rikta.
Overcoming challenges to deliver results
Bangladesh made significant progress on curbing malnutrition in recent years, reducing child stunting from 41% to 31% between 2011 and 2018.
However, Covid-19 threatened to roll back hard-won gains, turning a health crisis into a nutrition crisis, with children most at risk.
Each year, the government holds two national Vitamin-A Plus campaigns, but this year, due to Covid-19, the second campaign in July was postponed.
The campaign was held in October after ensuring all health safety measures.
Unicef supported the campaign by developing guidelines and communications materials to ensure a safe roll-out in the context of Covid-19, and technical support for real-time monitoring and reporting.
It also distributed 360,000 masks to health workers and volunteers.
“The introduction of real-time monitoring and reporting for the campaign has been a real game changer. Mobile phones are used to report daily campaign operations, enabling us to act quickly if we are off track. If one health centre faced supply shortages, the required supplies were dispatched immediately from the nearest facility,” says Dr SM Mustafizur Rahman, line director of National Nutrition Services, at the Institute of Public Health Nutrition under the Directorate General of Health Services.
Mitigating risks for children’s nutrition
The campaign was made successful by mobilizing and engaging millions of health workers, volunteers and parents to ensure children received an important nutritional boost through the campaign.
Nitu Rani Saha, 35, is a mother of three living in the south of Dhaka city. She appreciates the importance of vitamin A for her child’s nutrition and came to the clinic with her three-year-old daughter to ensure she receives a supplement.
“A friend on Facebook told me about this campaign. I also heard about it from the TV and newspapers. I think it's a great initiative,” said Nitu Rani Saha.
“We suffered a lot during the lockdown. Even though we had less food, we tried our best to maintain the diet we always provided to the kids. I hope it hasn’t impacted their nutrition,” she added.
As the pandemic continues to impact lives, livelihoods and food security throughout Bangladesh, ensuring continued access to essential nutrition services remains critical to mitigate the risks for children.
“The campaign is an important achievement for children, but our work is far from over. We must redouble our efforts to screen, monitor and treat children for severe malnutrition which can have lifelong consequences - impacting children’s growth, development and even survival,” said Piyali Mustaphi, chief of the Nutrition Section at Unicef Bangladesh.