PROJECT POSHAN                                         
                 Building Malnutrition Free Villages through Community Participation  
                                                     
       United Way Mumbai is a part of the 130+ year old United Way movement spanning 41 countries across 
       the world. Our mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities to advance 
       the common good.  
       We work closely with a network of 400+ NGOs and a large number of corporates for their CSR 
       programmes, workplace giving campaigns and other events. This includes designing of CSR policy and 
       strategies, due diligence of NGO partners, programme implementation, employee volunteering, impact 
       assessments and financial and programmatic reporting.  
       Over the past 17 years, we have partnered with over 300 companies and over 1,00,000 individual donors 
       investing close to INR 390 crore for community development projects. Our expertise lies in identifying, 
       designing & implementing high impact projects in the areas of Education, Health, Income, Environment, 
       Public Safety & Social Inclusion in both urban as well as rural communities across the country. 
       United  Way  Mumbai  creates,  implements  and  monitors  customized  CSR  programmes  which 
       are aligned  with  a  company’s values, products and expertise. Our work encompasses 3 principle 
       components – Design, Implement & Measure 
          I.    Design 
                   -  Sector Research 
                   -  CSR Policy & Strategy 
                   -  Need Assessment 
                   -  CSR Programme Design 
                   -  NGO Partner Selection 
                 
          II.   Implement 
                   -  Programme Implementation 
                   -  Grant Management 
                   -  Employee Engagement & Volunteering 
                   -  Payroll Giving Programmes 
                 
          III.  Measure 
                   -  Programme Monitoring and Evaluation 
                   -  Impact Assessment 
                   -  Financial & Programmatic Reporting 
                   -  CSR Programme Audits                          
       This document and the contents hereof are confidential. This document is issued solely for the benefit of the addressee and, except with our express consent, is not to 
                     be transmitted to nor is it to be relied upon by, any other person, or for any purpose other than that set out herein. 
             United Way Mumbai, 6th floor, C Wing, Mumbai Educational Trust, Gen AK Vaidya Marg, Bandra Reclamation, Bandra West, Mumbai 400050. 
                                   Tel: +91 22 26567000    Website: www.unitedwaymumbai.org 
        THE NEED                                                                                                   
         
        Across the world, 1 in every 3 children under the age of 5 is undernourished. 1 in 2 children suffers from 
        hidden hunger (micronutrient deficiencies).  Malnutrition, today, is a global crisis and undermines 
        children’s capacity to grow and live life to their full potential. 
        In  India,  malnutrition  is  the  primary  reason    What Malnutrition Does To Children 
        behind  69%  of  deaths  in  children  under  5. 
        UNICEF’s  State  of  the  World’s  Children  2019     Chronic malnutrition will have severe 
        report highlighted that every second child in India   consequences which affect a child for the rest of 
        within this age group is affected by some form        its life.  
        of  malnutrition.  This  includes  stunting  (low      •  Increased likelihood of premature death 
        height for age) with 35% of children, wasting (low 
        weight  for  height)  with  17%  of  children  and     •  Those who do survive are at much greater 
        overweight with 2% of children.                           risk from a variety of afflictions including 
        The Global Nutrition Report 2018 also reaffirmed          heart disease, diabetes and kidney damage, 
        the  crisis  of  malnutrition  in  the  nation  by        and are far less able to withstand infection.  
        concluding that India topped the list of the most      •  Lower physical capacity and energy for work 
        number  of  stunted  children  with  46.6  million        as an adult, with associated economic costs.  
        children being recorded as having low height for 
        their  age.  India  was followed by Nigeria (13.9      •  Major long-term negative impacts on brain 
        million) and Pakistan (10.7 million). The report          and nerve development and function, 
        further stated that India also accounted for 25.5         including on mental skills and activity, 
        million  children  who  are  wasted,  followed  by        physical movement and coordination and the 
        Nigeria (3.4 million) and Indonesia (3.3 million).        acquisition of social skills.  
                                                               •  This damage tends to be reflected in lower 
        The malnutrition crisis in India has far reaching         IQs and poorer performance at school.  
        implications. As a generation of children grow up 
        without adequate nutrition, we put them at risk of     •  Those who were chronically malnourished as 
        lowered IQ, poor health outcomes, diminished              children can pass it on to the next generation 
        capacity for work and greater susceptibility to           in an ongoing cycle, as mothers with low 
        illness.                                                  body weight in turn give birth to small babies. 
         
        Fixing the crisis is now urgent and imperative.  
         
         
        This document and the contents hereof are confidential. This document is issued solely for the benefit of the addressee and, except with our express consent, is not to 
                        be transmitted to nor is it to be relied upon by, any other person, or for any purpose other than that set out herein. 
                United Way Mumbai, 6th floor, C Wing, Mumbai Educational Trust, Gen AK Vaidya Marg, Bandra Reclamation, Bandra West, Mumbai 400050. 
                                         Tel: +91 22 26567000    Website: www.unitedwaymumbai.org 
     THE PROJECT                                                           
      
     UNICEF’s widely accepted conceptual framework suggests that the underlying causes of poor child 
     nutrition  are  lack  of  access  to  a  nutritious  diet,  inadequate  preventive  and  curative  health  and 
     inadequate care including feeding, and each of these underlying causes in turn results from multiple 
     factors.  Successful  elimination  and  prevention  of  malnutrition  thus  requires  a  multifactorial  and 
     concerted response over an extended period of time. 
                      
                     United Way Mumbai’s Project Poshan works on this premise and aims to make 
                     villages and communities malnutrition free. The interventions are envisioned 
                     with a geographic focus, i.e. a village, and for a period of minimum three years. 
                      
     The project will be implemented in villages of Raigad district. Raigad and Palghar are amongst regions 
     with the highest incidence of malnutrition in Maharashtra. While Palghar has received much greater 
     attention, the communities in Raigad have been neglected. Villages within Raigad will be selected in 
     consultation with government authorities and gram panchayats. A participatory rural appraisal will be 
     undertaken in the identified villages to understand issues related to health and resources available 
     within the community. 
     The project has three key strategies: 
      
            Helping undernourished children fight malnutrition 
            We will do this by providing medical care and nutrition support to undernourished children 
            through home based interventions. 
      
             Preventing further incidences of undernutrition in the village 
             We will do this by focusing on the first 1000 days of a child’s life and improving the health    
             of mothers and women in child bearing age. 
      
            Creating an enabling environment for children to grow 
            We will do this by building capacities of local stakeholders such as anganwadi workers and 
            encouraging community ownership. 
      
     Each of these has been elaborated further below. 
      
      
     This document and the contents hereof are confidential. This document is issued solely for the benefit of the addressee and, except with our express consent, is not to 
                be transmitted to nor is it to be relied upon by, any other person, or for any purpose other than that set out herein. 
          United Way Mumbai, 6th floor, C Wing, Mumbai Educational Trust, Gen AK Vaidya Marg, Bandra Reclamation, Bandra West, Mumbai 400050. 
                           Tel: +91 22 26567000    Website: www.unitedwaymumbai.org 
                                                                                                  
                  I.     HELPING UNDERNOURSIHED CHILDREN FIGHT MALNUTRITION 
       The  project  will  commence  with  a  baseline  assessment  of  children  using  anthropometry. 
       Anthropometry is a widely used, inexpensive and on invasive measure of the general nutritional status 
       of an individual or a population group. The three commonly used anthropometric indices are Weight 
       for Age (WFA), Height for Age (HFA) and Weight for Height (WFH). Based on median scores of the 
       reference population, children can be identified as suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), 
       Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) or borderline undernourished. While the ICDS maintains its own 
       records  of  nutrition  status,  the  project  team  will  verify  these  records  through  an  independent 
       assessment of height, weight and mid upper arm circumference. Targeted interventions will then be 
       planned for the SAM, MAM and borderline undernourished children in addition to efforts made for all 
       children in the villages. 
          A.  Complementary Feeding 
       Children who are SAM, MAM and borderline undernourished will be offered complementary feeding 
       through  nutrition  supplements.  These  nutrition  supplements  will  be  designed  by  the  project’s 
       nutritionist based on learnings from the field and recommendations of the state’s Nutrition Mission. 
       This will also be based on the Dietary Recall undertaken with children and their parents in the identified 
       villages. 
       The nutrition supplement will be FSSAI certified / healthy foods which provide a minimum of 250 Kcal 
       to the child in addition to their regular diet. This supplementation will be provided for 6 months of the 
       year (August – January) and may be extended if a child does not show sufficient progress. 
       The Project Poshan team will distribute these supplements to each identified household on a weekly 
       basis and ensure parents make it available to the children. 
          B.  Community Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) 
       Children identified as SAM and those who have a medical condition are treated in government run 
       intensive care inpatient facilities known as Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres. These centres have been 
       set up by the government at district level and require children and their caregivers to stay there for the 
       entire duration of treatment. This is sometimes a deterrent for parents as it means loss of wages. 
       Children in need of such intensive care will be referred to the centres and efforts will be made to 
       mobilise parents. 
       In cases where such as approach is not required, an outpatient treatment programme (CMAM) will be 
       undertaken. CMAM offers SAM children the opportunity to be treated at home, rather than in a centre, 
       with family and community support for recovery. These children will be administered Ready-to-Use 
       This document and the contents hereof are confidential. This document is issued solely for the benefit of the addressee and, except with our express consent, is not to 
                     be transmitted to nor is it to be relied upon by, any other person, or for any purpose other than that set out herein. 
             United Way Mumbai, 6th floor, C Wing, Mumbai Educational Trust, Gen AK Vaidya Marg, Bandra Reclamation, Bandra West, Mumbai 400050. 
                                   Tel: +91 22 26567000    Website: www.unitedwaymumbai.org