This pilot project, was to purchase food, make up distribution kits and organise their distribution twice during the pregnancy of underprivileged expectant mothers in rural areas of the Jashore District of Bangladesh.
The project included not only the provision of essential food supplements but included the provision of education on health, nutrition and hygiene.
The outcomes for the project included better health of the expectant mothers and better health and birth weight of babies born. Awareness among the expectant mothers of better health and that of their newborns has reduced the risk of risk of malnutrition, jaundice, pneumonia and other disabilities.
As a result of providing nutrition and hygiene education to expectant mothers, it is gradually spreading through families and communities in rural Jashore by word of mouth. The Bangladesh Government is also showing an interest by concurrently providing health services to the expectant mothers and folic acid and other supplements for expectant mothers.
The Government is also very interested in the project as it has attracted many underprivileged mothers and their husbands to Community Health Centres who in the past would not have attended, and as a result broader health services are now being provided to these people.
An MOU is currently being developed by Government and the Smile Baby organisation.
This project was funded by a District 9815 Foundation Grant, and the vision in this project is to build the project into a larger grant to provide the benefits to a larger number of mothers. This was four partner project - Box Hill Central Rotary Club, District 9815 Foundation Grant, Rotary Club of Dhaka New City and local businesses in Jashore, Bangladesh. Managed and delivered on the ground by Smile Baby Welfare NGO.
Originally scoped for 85 mothers, supplier price improvements meant that 105 mothers have benefitted from this project.