Mothers using MUAC to screen acute malnutrition FHF ACF 2017

It was early 2014, when Fight Hunger Foundation (FHF), Indian member organization of Action Against Hunger International Network, operationalized its nutrition-care practices integrated programme in the malnutrition hot-spot, Kishanganj block of Baran district in the southeastern corner of Rajasthan. It was the time when state health, women & child development departments responsible for management of malnutrition were clueless on broader screening efficiency a simple handy tool like Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) tape afforded. Village-level screening of children between 6 months to 5 years by local frontline workers, the ASHA and Anganwadi Worker, relied solely on
growth monitoring at Anganwadi centers. Children with below average weight-for-age were referred to Malnutrition Treatment Centers (MTC) with ‘visible’ wasting estimated by untrained workers, further resulting in refusal of cases disqualified on WHZ admission criteria, inadvertently losing beneficiary confidence in the due process of referral and nonadmission.