2006 Working Group Highlights

Organized a nutrition training for partners working on Title II food aid programs in Mozambique.

Provided input to Linkages on designing their end of project expo scheduled for May 30th in DC.

2005 Working Group Highlights:

• Developed and published Positive Deviance Hearth Essential Elements to provide a concise overview of appropriate settings for and essential components of a PD/Hearth program.

• Supported the development of new technical reference materials for nutrition for USAID's Child Survival and Health Grants Program.

• Sponsored technical updates at the 2005 CORE Spring Meeting on infant and young child feeding in the context of HIV, and the use of zinc to prevent diarrhea.

• PD/Hearth trainings were conducted in Mozambique and Zambia.

2004 Working Group Highlights:

Positive Deviance/Hearth
Positive Deviance (PD) / Hearth is a successful home and neighborhood–based approach to rehabilitate malnourished children and prevent malnutrition in the future. Positive deviance mobilizes the community to find the uncommon, beneficial practices by mothers or caretakers of well-nourished children from impoverished families. Communities then share these practices with families of malnourished children through a Hearth setting where caregivers learn to prepare extra energy-rich/calorie-dense supplemental meals for their children and practice beneficial childcare behaviors.

This year, Working Group members conducted three PD/Hearth regional trainings for multiple organizations. World Relief coordinated a workshop in Rwanda for 73 Ministry of Health and NGO participants from Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Madagascar. Counterpart International hosted a workshop in Gujarat, India, for 27 NGO and Ministry participants from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Catholic Relief Services coordinated a PD/Hearth workshop in Benin. The Peace Corps utilized CORE’s training materials to coordinate a training of trainers for Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa.

The CORE PD/Hearth manual was translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French and Indonesian. CORE also published guides for hiring PD/Hearth consultants and a curriculum for training program managers.

Maternal Nutrition
In partnership with LINKAGES, the Working Group developed the Maternal Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation Dietary Guide, which provides program managers with practical guidance on maternal nutrition needs, including weight gain recommendations for pregnancy, and increased nutritional needs and micronutrient supplementation needs for pregnancy and lactation. Supporting interventions for reducing malaria infection, reducing hookworm infection, initiating birth spacing, and decreasing workload are described.

Infant and Young Child Feeding
The Working Group distributed the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization document titled Guiding Principles for Complementary Feeding of the Breastfed Child, and Working Group members represented CORE at the United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition meeting. CORE member Judiann McNulty wrote a featured article on the NGO Role in Improving Complementary Feeding for the Standing Committee’s Fifth Annual Report.