Grantee profiles

Round 1 Grants

Innovation was a key criterion for selection of the eight grantees in 2010. Cell phone technology will be applied in Kenya and India to deliver IYCF-specific messages and counseling in support of exclusive breastfeeding. The project in Viet Nam will target fathers using several innovative strategies to encourage their support for optimal infant feeding practices. In Bangladesh, cost-effectiveness of training of traditional birth attendants and community volunteers will be evaluated, based on facilitating recommended practices starting from childbirth. In Mexico, a social marketing strategy will be used to develop easy-to-understand complementary feeding messages that will then be delivered through nurses during the National Vaccination Week and reinforced by broadcasts during a popular morning television show. Two projects will evaluate interventions that combine use of micronutrient powders for home fortification of complementary foods along with other approaches to improve infant nutrition: use of water-based hand sanitizers in Bangladesh and homestead food production plus behavior change communication in Nepal. Another project will assess the acceptability and efficacy of a locally available, nutrient-rich indigenous food, processed into a cereal for complementary feeding of Congolese children.

Round 2 Grants

Alive & Thrive awarded four more small grants in 2011 to strengthen delivery of interventions to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. Three of the new grants aim to improve breastfeeding practices through enhanced breastfeeding support and counseling. These two-year grants will examine integration of breastfeeding support into a microcredit program, various levels of implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, breastfeeding clubs for adolescent mothers, and use of cell phones for breastfeeding counseling and messaging. The fourth grant will study the impact of incorporating  lipid-based nutrient supplement into well-baby and reproductive health services.

List of grantees

Breastfeeding interventions

Improving breastfeeding practices by providing breastfeeding support via cell phones and the addition of breastfeeding education to monthly microcredit borrower meetings in Nigeria: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Partners for Development (Nigeria); and 6 local community-based organizations: GEREWA Women’s Association, Rahama Women Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Women in Nigeria, WURNO Kokonawa Community Development Centre, Dass Women’s Multipurpose Cooperative Union, and Toro Salama

Providing breastfeeding support through breastfeeding clubs and cell phones to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates among adolescent mothers in Honduras: Samaritan’s Purse International Relief (Honduras), Leonardo Martinez Hospital (Honduras), National University of Honduras, Honduran Chapter of La Leche League, and Bloomberg School of Public Health Johns Hopkins University

Improving breastfeeding practices through the implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kinshasa School of Public Health, Centre for the Coordination of Social Science Research and Documentation in Africa South of the Sahara (CERDAS), Ministry of Health (DRC), Salvation Army, Bureau Diocésain des Oeuvres Médicales de Kinshasa (BDOM)

Assessing the cost and effectiveness of training and supervision of frontline workers on early breastfeeding practices in Bangladesh: Eminence (Bangladesh) and Hanyang University (South Korea)

Promoting fathers’ involvement in breastfeeding in Viet Nam: Hanoi School of Public Health and the Department of Maternal and Child Health Protection and Family Planning

Improving breastfeeding practices through cell phone counseling in India: Lata Medical Research Foundation, Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital, Daga Memorial Government Hospital, and Matru Seva Sangh

Providing peer support through cell phones and group meetings to increase exclusive breastfeeding in Kenya: University of Toronto (Canada), Egerton University (Kenya), and Rollins School of Public Health (USA)

Complementary feeding interventions

Adding micronutrient powders to an integrated food security and nutrition project to further reduce malnutrition in Nepal: Helen Keller International, Micronutrient Initiative, Nepal Technical Assistance Group, and Snehi Mahila Jagaron Kendra

Reducing infections among low birthweight infants through micronutrient powders, hand sanitizers, and education in Bangladesh: Research Institute at the Hospital of Sick Children (University of Toronto) and BRAC (Bangladesh)

Increasing protein and micronutrient content of complementary foods through a caterpillar cereal in the Democratic Republic of Congo: University of North Carolina (USA), Kinshasa School of Public Health(DRC), and Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Sante (DRC)

Partnering with media and a vaccination program to improve infant and young child feeding in Mexico: University of South Carolina (USA) and the Center for Research in Nutrition and Health of the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca (Mexico)

Complementary food security in an urban slum, Cap Haitien, Haiti: Washington University in St. Louis’s George Warren Brown School of Social Work (USA), Meds and Food for Kids (USA), Haiti’s Ministry of Health, and Population (MSPP) and Konbit Santé (Haiti)