Health and Nutrition

What we want to do:

We want all children in Sierra Leone to enjoy good health. We working towards this by:

• Increasing the number of children who are protected from disease
• Increasing the number of children who are well nourished
• Ensuring children and their caregivers have access to essential health services
• Reducing the prevalence and impact of HIV and AIDS on boys and girls

What is the problem?

There are a number of factors working against young children in Sierra Leone including malnutrition (often caused by poor feeding practices), unsafe water, inadequate sanitation facilities or insufficient hygiene practices.

How is World Vision addressing the issues?

We are monitoring the growth of children so that signs of malnutrition can be addressed early. We are training mothers and communities about the proper care and nutrition of newborn and young children and we are empowering communities to identify and care for children in need.

Is what World Vision doing working?

Yes! We are excited to see that in the areas where we are working, the average percentage of infants whose births were attended by skilled birth attendants (82%) is significantly higher than the national average (54%). We are also encouraged to see that children in the areas where we work are much more likely to be immunized on time compared to the general population (85% of children in World Vision areas were immunized on time compared with 58% nationally). Finally, although we still have a great deal of work to be done, we are proud that because of our interactions, fewer children are facing malnutrition in the areas where we are working (only 11.6% of children were wasting in 2017 compared to 16.5% in 2016).

 Related Resources:

• See how our emergency responses are providing food and hope to hunger-stricken communities.