Working with local administrations and religious leaders, the UN body has educated parents on the need for an available supply of healthy and nutritious foods for the sake of a child’s health starting from the first day of pregnancy until 2 years of age.

“For NTT, we are now piloting a first 1,000 days of life project in Kupang,” said Yudhistira Yewangoe, the Unicef’s head representative for NTB and NTT, recently.

In the project, he said, Unicef strengthened the role of integrated health posts (Posyandu) as the prime driver in the distribution of nutritional intake for under 5-year-old children.

The 2013 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) says NTT ranks first of provinces with the highest level of malnutrition problems.

Yewangoe said there had been a deep misunderstanding of malnutrition, with people tending to pay close attention to only thin children. Meanwhile, unconformity between a child’s body measurements and their age is only one of three categories of malnutrition, including stunting in children and obesity.

While the number of very thin children in NTT has continuously declined, the province still records a high number of children whose body height and weight do not match their ages. “Unicef wants to give all parents knowledge on healthy, nutritious intake,” Yewangoe said. (ebf)

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