Exclusive Breastfeeding in Rural Kyrgyzstan: One Mother's Journey to Success

The village has one health post with two nurses, but mothers are often too busy with routine work to visit for health checkups and medical advice. As a result, many mothers in the community have never received information and counseling on proper child feeding and nutrition. In June 2015, the USAID-supported SPRING project provided training in infant and young child feeding to a network of local community activists. These activists, including school teachers, housewives, and government leaders, visited households with children under two years of age to disseminate key messages about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding and provide a nutrition booklet developed by SPRING and the Ministry of Health. One of these activists, Omurbaeva Gilnara, visited Raima's house and spent 30 minutes introducing the booklet and talking about exclusive breastfeeding. Raima's son was four months old at the time of the visit and was being given foods other than breastmilk. After learning that only breastmilk for the baby's first six months is the best choice for optimal nutrition, Raima gained the confidence to exclusively breastfeed. When her son reached six months of age, Raima began feeding him other healthy foods in addition to breastmilk, as is recommended. The SPRING project's outreach to Raima was part of a larger social and behavior change communication strategy that provides orientation on nutrition topics to 2,000 activists monthly. From April to September 2015, the work of these activists reached over 21,000 caregivers and 7,500 children under two from 4,000 households. Community meetings brought key nutrition messages to an additional 10,000 adults from July to September. The SPRING project collaborates with the Kyrgyz Ministries of Health and Agriculture to reduce stunting by improving nutrition-related behaviors at the household level and building national capacity for nutrition-centered policy-making. The project's geographic focus is in USAID's Feed the Future zone of influence, which includes the districts of Jalalabad and Naryn.