Adani Foundation and ICDS Kakinada come together to eradicate Malnutrition through Project Fortune SuPoshan

0
363

Kakinada, 21st September, 2024: Fortune SuPoshan is a flagship project of Adani Wilmar, which is implemented by the Adani Foundation across 17 locations in 11 states in India. The project aims to contribute to the government’s Poshan Abhiyaan on reducing Malnutrition and Anemia among children below 5 years, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers. The project is implemented through community-level volunteers known as SuPoshan Sanginis, who are trained to identify and refer malnourished children, provide home-based counselling, conduct cooking demonstrations, organize focus group discussions and nutrition camps, conduct village-level programs, develop kitchen gardens and create community awareness about Malnutrition-related issues.

On September 19, 2024, the project was launched in Kakinada block of Kakinada district in Andhra Pradesh. As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), the level of severe Malnutrition in the wasting category among children under five years is 20.0%, and the overall wasting level is 34.4%, while 33.9% of children are underweight. Around 70.5% of children under five years of age and 53.6% of women in the age group of 15-49 years are anemic.

SuPoshan aims to support the nutrition drive to achieve the Prime Minister’s goal of a well-nourished India and contribute to the work of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) for a Malnutrition- and Anemia-free society. Each Sangini will collaborate with three Anganwadi centers and support monitoring and measurement, family counselling, group discussions, developing kitchen gardens and wash baskets and work to strengthen IYCF and WASH practices. The work will be done in coordination with the ICDS department. Each Sangini will be equipped with a weighing machine, infantometer, stadiometer and a modern tablet where she will teach informative videos using technology.

The project will be implemented for a period of four years starting from the baseline by the third party. The launch event took place at Spandana Convention Hall in Sarpavaram Junction area of Kakinada by Mrs Konda Praveena, Project Director of Women and Child development department, who chaired the event. Expressing the importance of working on critical issues like Malnutrition and Anemia towards building a healthy society, she promised to extend all possible support towards implementation of the project. She was happy to know that the project will be driven by women workforce at the community level, who will be identified and trained to become SuPoshan Sanginis.

On the occasion, Mr Manish Bagpai, Cluster Head of Adani Wilmar Limited, Kakinada, congratulated the team and shared his wishes for the successful implementation of the project. Joining the event virtually, Mr. Vivek Yadav, Head of Health and Nutrition at Adani Foundation in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Mrs Rozina Sultana, Deputy Project Manager, Project SuPoshan, Haldia (West Bengal), presented the project information. Mr Baggu Venkatramana, HR Head of Adani Wilmar Limited, Kakinada, gave the vote of thanks.

The event was attended by more than 120 people, including local panchayat members, officials of ICDS and Health departments, members of Team SuPoshan, Anganwadi workers and SuPoshan Sanginis.