Good nutrition is within reach

The first thousand days of life are crucial for everyone. Babies who don’t get enough of the right foods during this time are likely to struggle in school as children and to earn low wages as adults. Being undernourished when we are young escalates our chance of dying early or suffering from acute illness—something that happens all too often in developing countries.

That’s why, in addition to our work on nutrition technologies, PATH works with global health colleagues and communities around the world to promote inexpensive, integrated health interventions aimed at making sure pregnant mothers and babies get the nutrients they need.

On the international scale, we created a website to provide the global health community access to nutrition resources, best practices, and success stories. At the community level, we work with community health workers and volunteers, local organizations, and community members themselves. In Kenya, for example, a joint venture with the International Potato Center allows pregnant women to collect vouchers for sweetpotato plants during their checkups—offering them an excellent source of vitamin A and an incentive to seek prenatal care. And during prenatal care visits in South Africa, HIV-positive pregnant mothers are counseled on safe infant feeding—with a companion who helps the mother practice what she has learned at home.

Many children can be saved through low-cost measures to improve nutrition practices early in life. Our goal is to make sure the broadest audiences, from global health leaders to community volunteers, know it.

Photo: PATH/Evelyn Hockstein.