Why am I fundraising?

FMCH addresses the issue of malnutrition among the vulnerable communities in Mumbai through a holistic approach of preventive care, treatment, community education, and partnership training programs.  Specifically, FMCH works on ‘The First Thousand Days’ program. It has been well established that proper nutrition during the first thousand days of a child’s life, from conception until their second birthday, is the key factor in ensuring that they survive and reach their potential. FMCH works actively with pregnant women and children up to the age of two, to ensure that they have the knowledge and support to pass through this critical window in good health. 

The Urban Nutrition Initiative has been designed to ensure prevention and early detection of malnutrition in ten ‘high-burden’ urban locations of Maharashtra. Led by the Rajmata Jijau Nutrition Mission, this is an initiative implemented in partnership with NGOs and the ICDS. This project aims at implementing ten essential nutrition interventions through the First 1000 Days’ approach as per the WHO and UNICEF recommendations. This initiative is undertaken in order to demonstrate a sustainable public-private partnership model where the NGO partner works with the Government to enhance the services provided, instead of duplicating the same.

The UNI aims at identifying and connecting pregnant/lactating mothers and children under age two with the local Aanganwadi Centers (AWC), who are typically outside the scope of the ICDS model. The NGO partners will be responsible for not just identification but also ensuring trusted and correct health and nutrition information reaches the mother through the ICDS. This is a preventive initiative, which depends heavily on innovative education modules and a very strong monitoring system.

FMCH has committed to taking up an entire ICDS project area near Thane District catering to 140 AWCs (a population of 140,000) over the next three years as an implementation partner for UNI. FMCH aims to use this opportunity to develop and implement creative and effective knowledge modules that will not only provide trusted information to the community but also facilitate behavior change and myth busting.

What do I plan to do with the funds?

FMCH will use this fund towards running the Urban Nutrition Initaitve which is already being implemented since April 2015. 

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