Evaluation of the use of Health Baby Tool Kits (HBT) by caregivers for young child feeding in Uganda

Abstract

The Development and Delivery of Biofortified Crops (DDBIO) project implemented a focused nutrition training program among caregivers organized in health Living clubs (HLCs) or Mother Care Groups (MCGs) in Uganda. 300 clubs were established in Acholi sub-region (Omoro, Lamwo, Kitgum, Pader and Agago districts); in Karamoja (Moroto and Kotido districts; Eastern Uganda (Butaleja, Tororo, Busia and Bugiri districts) and in Adjumani district. Clubs had 30 caregivers who were either pregnant women, lactating women or caregivers of children under two years. Men, grandmothers, and adolescent girls from the families of caregivers were also invited into the meetings. The novelty in these trainings were that caregivers were trained to use the health baby toolkit (HBT) technology to feed nutritious food to children that were six months to 2 years. In addition, the trainings followed a structured curriculum that required them to meet once every month for eight months. The meetings were interactive as much as possible, involving playing audio messages, cooking demonstrations, visual aids such as charts and goal cards etc. The trainings were intended/made efficient yet cost-effective by training the local village health teams to conduct the trainings, by digitalizing the monitoring system and using the local food sources as much as possible. An operational