Point Hope

The Children’s Center Nutrition Program works for the betterment of mothers and children at Buduburam Refugee Settlement and is a vital Point Hope partner. In 2005 the Nutrition Program was established to identify the malnourished children at the camp (categorizing their conditions as mildly, moderately, or severely malnourished) and to support them through a Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) with regular follow up, free medical care, as well as health and nutrition education to their families and the community.

In 2007, Point Hope began a partnership with the Children’s Center.

• Point Hope financially supports many of the activities of the Nutrition Program, providing milk, rice and other food for the malnourished, as well as funding the staff salaries for those who work at the nutrition program affiliated daycares (Save Our Souls Day Care and GRUHEDEM), including care-givers, cooks and teachers.
• Point Hope also coordinates its economic empowerment and skills training programs to adequately target vulnerable and food insecure individuals, bringing the parents of malnourished children hope for a sustainable future.
• Point Hope heard that the free medical care for malnourished children was no longer funded through the nutrition program; we recognized how bad that would be for children already at risk of death and disease, so we now pay for their care at St. Gregory’s Catholic Clinic and we also pay medical expenses at local hospitals when the need arises.

Point Hope and all of our Nutrition Program partners believe in speaking out and acting on behalf of children. The following is an excerpt from the Memorandum of Understanding we all signed:

We acknowledge that nutrition is essential for life, the adequate development of human potential, and the maintenance of health; and that it has been widely recognized at the international level that among all possible interventions investing in nutrition yields the highest returns at the individual, community and national level; impacting the capacity to fight diseases, enhance community development and maximizing economic growth.

• The Nutrition Program is intended to serve both the refugee and local Ghanaian community.
• Continued health and nutrition education and services are essential to achieving community viability, development, sustainability, and economic growth.

The Children’s Center has a core staff of dedicated professionals, both Liberians and Ghanaians, including four volunteer Nutrition Counselors with experience in community health and a Community Nutritionist who is in charge of coordinating the activities of the program.

The Center now has several programs in place; in addition to the original Supplementary Feeding Program, there is now: Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition, Day Care Programs for the malnourished and otherwise vulnerable children, Nutrition Counseling and Health Education activities, Exclusive Breastfeeding and Continued Breastfeeding Promotion, Annual Nutrition Survey and regular screening of children for malnutrition through community outreach.

The Nutrition Program also participates in the growth monitoring and well baby consultations organized by the Ghana Health Services. The mothers of all children under five years are encouraged to bring their children monthly, although the main group of children that regularly partake in the program are those under one year old. This program is linked with the vaccinations of children under five, and the last vaccine is given in the ninth month.