With the aim of achieving zero child deaths due to malnutrition in Amravati and Nandurbar districts and saving thousands of lives, Dettol Banega Swasth India’s nutrition initiative, the Reach Each Child program has made a significant impact on the community.
After two successful years of Dettol Banega Swasth India’s nutrition initiative, the major goal is to support the nation in its fight against undernutrition, Reckitt and Plan India have been constantly working towards improving maternal and child health standards in India by investing in better nutrition.
With its continuous interventions on the ground, the program was able to produce a social value of Rs. 37 from each rupee invested. The 3rd phase of the Reach Each Child initiative, launched in 2021, provides support and care during the first 1000 days of a mother and child’s life. Reach Each Child program prioritizes adequate nutrition for children under the age of 5 through locally-led initiatives, with community nutrition workers being key suppliers of information and services.
“Good Health and wellbeing are at the heart of our purpose at Reckitt, and through our initiatives, we work to protect, heal and nurture for a cleaner and healthier world. We are glad to announce that our pilot interventions under the ‘Reach Each Child’ program in Nandurbar and Amravati have helped achieve 0 malnutrition deaths among supported children and increased the proportion of women choosing facility-based deliveries by 26 percent. Our aim is to the Reach Each Child initiative is to bring a change in the lives of 10 million new mothers by 2024,” says Mr. Ravi Bhatnagar, Director, External Affairs and partnerships, SOA, Reckitt.
Adding more to this initiative Mr. Mohd. Asif, Executive Director, Plan India stated revealed that the partnership with Reckitt for Reach Each Child program has helped us bring about a significant change in people’s lives, particularly that of children and mothers. He further said, “At Plan India, we are all incredibly proud and delighted to be a part of the program and on the occasion of World Nutrition Day we continue to draw our focus and that of all development actors on developing and deepening the knowledge, skills, and confidence of mothers and caregivers of children to proactively maintain healthy pregnancies, protect child’s health through innovative behaviour change communication and community activities.”
Dettol BSI’s efforts under the ‘Reach Each Child’ Program across the state-supported Maharashtra in improving access to care and support for mothers before, during, and after pregnancy and severely malnourished children by refurbishing NRCs and health facilities. The program ensured that mothers had better access to care by taking up the following targeted interventions such as promoting good nutritional practices, provision of micronutrients through food fortification for all, therapeutic feeding for malnourished children with special foods, increasing intake of vitamins, and minerals for young children and their mothers, providing incentivization via conditional-cash-transfers and others.
