Family MUAC: World Vision in Mauritania
The ‘Family MUAC’ approach, also known as MUAC for mothers or Mother-MUAC, trains mothers and other caregivers to identify early signs of malnutrition in their children using a simple to use Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) tape. By moving this task to mothers (or other family members), who are able to do it as effectively as Community Health Workers (CHWs), the cases are detected earlier, leading to less hospitalisations. Mothers are empowered to manage their children’s health and CHWs have more time to carry out other tasks.
World Vision
World Vision Mauritania began implementing the Mother MUAC approach after seeing ALIMA’s presentation on their experience of this methodology at the ECHO annual meeting in Dakar in 2016. They decided to use the approach in Wilaya Region of Assaba, Moughataas Districts of Boumdied, Kankossa and Guerou and began training mothers in September and October 2016.