Alive & Thrive announces recipients of round 2 Small Grants Program
June 21, 2011
Alive & Thrive (A&T) awarded three small grants to strengthen delivery of interventions to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. The grants will compare communication strategies for improving IYCF programming and study delivery channels for integrating interventions into broader programmatic initiatives. Two additional proposals are still under review. The overall goal of the grants program is to test and seed innovative ideas and link research to program delivery.
The three 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.
In total, the new grants will involve five non-governmental organizations, six community-based organizations, five universities, one research institute, and at least seven hospitals. The research topics, study sites, and collaborating institutions are as follows:
- 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 Œuvres Médicales de Kinshasa (BDOM)
In total, Alive & Thrive has awarded 11 grants. Of the eight grants awarded during Round 1 in 2010, one study is completed and seven are underway. The A&T small grants program is part of an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce undernutrition and death caused by sub-optimal infant and young child feeding practices. The grants program is managed by the University of California – Davis. Other members of the A&T team are AED-ARTS, BRAC, GMMB, IFPRI, Save the Children, and World Vision.