PD Hearth nutrition programme builds on local knowledge

PD/HEARTH is a successful approach to decrease malnutrition. It combines two approaches: Deviance positive and Hearth. The Hearth session consists of nutritional rehabilitation and education (awareness raising) over a 12-day period followed by home visits to the caregivers by the volunteers. During the Hearth session, the community volunteers and the caregivers of malnourished children practice new cooking, feeding, hygiene and caring behaviour. The Hearth approach promotes behaviour change and empowers caregivers to take responsibility for nutritional rehabilitation of their children using local knowledge and resources.

The Positive Deviance approach is based on the premise that some solutions to community problems already exist within the community, and all that World Vision does is to help the communities to rediscover them. It is well-established that solutions discovered within a community are more sustainable than those brought in from the outside.

The PD/HEARTH process taps into local awareness for successfully treating and preventing malnutrition and spreads that awareness throughout the community.

“My child was going to die because of ignorance,” sighed Nsabimana Jeannette, mother of Cherissa, a child who was underweight. It was two months later when World Vision volunteers visited her at home. She confirms that she learnt a lot during the 12 days she spent in the rehabilitation sessions, especially how to feed her child with a balanced diet and how to mix the food to prevent the child from choosing only kinds of food she prefers. She said that she also learned how to improve the hygiene in her household. Jeannette is now practicing at home what she learnt from the Hearth session, and promises to share lessons she learned with her neighbours.