The nutrition status of children under five in Nepal is still alarming despite some improvement over the last decade. There is a range of adverse outcomes related to poor nutrition and the damage it causes to brain development. Severe anemia caused by malnutrition can result in lower intelligence, which in turn, impacts on educability and productivity. Recent national representative data reveals that 36% of under-fives are stunted, 27% are underweight, 10% are wasted, and 53% are anemic (Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, 2016).Further, chronic malnutrition forms a vicious cycle, affecting generation after generation. There is variation in the prevalence of malnutrition in urban and rural setting. In urban prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting is about 32 percent, 23 percent and 9 percent respectively (NDHS, 2016). In reference of these statistics, Chhimeki has given priority to monitoring the nutritional status of young children through its Growth Monitoring program, which is conducted in its working areas. In the first week of every month of the Nepali calendar, Chhimeki’s trained volunteers weigh children under 3 years in their community. At these sessions the volunteers also demonstrate the preparation of nutritious food, such as Sarbottam Pitho, and counsel mothers about their children’s overall growth. If a child is identified as underweight, the mothers are provided counseling and referred to health facilities center as needed.

Growth Monitoring is running in eleven wards of KMC, in 87 specific locations in these wards. To date, 3828 children are in contact with us, with an average of 1519 children participating in the program every month. Since its inception till 2015, 66,940 children have been registered and received our services.