Funding: World Vision US

According to the Demographic and Health Survey in 2005, 13% of children under five in Armenia suffer from chronic malnutrition, and up to 38% of children in rural areas have anemia as a result of poor nutrition and an insufficiency of macronutrients in their diet.

Malnutrition and growth of child illnesses in Armenia is not only caused by social injustice and economic deprivation, but also by the lack of public health awareness of many young mothers and caregivers in remote villages. Moreover, limited family budgets are often spent on food products of low quality with questionable nutritional value, while there is a variety of inexpensive and locally available healthy food.

Although the majority of women in Armenia receive medical assistance during pregnancy and delivery, many of them apply for check-ups later than required and attend a doctor irregularly; the result is the lack of awareness on safe motherhood and reproductive health concepts, as well as inaccessibility of quality health care in remote areas.

Many Armenian women have limited access to modern methods of contraception and only 62% of them are aware of the means of HIV prevention. Abortions remain the main method of family planning and along with the increased levels of sexually transmitted infections contribute to the high rates of secondary infertility (28.5 %).

World Vision supports efforts to protect and sustain the health and well-being of children and their mothers in Armenia. World Vision strives to make the health of women and children a higher priority and encourages the government, international organizations, civil society and individuals to take joint actions to improve the well-being of mothers and children.

Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) Program operates in 7 regions of the country and aims to improve the health and nutritional status of children and mothers, and to assure access to quality primary healthcare for community population. This is done through promotion of healthy child growth and development, prevention of illness, appropriate home-based care for healthy and sick child, and recognition of life-threatening signs for timely referral to health specialists.

World Vision promotes the national standards on monitoring of child growth and development, including free annual health check-ups through increased cooperation with primary health care institutions.

World Vision Armenia supports and promotes the implementation of National Programs such as Integrated Management of Childhood Illness, Immunization and Breastfeeding promotion, through building the capacity of local primary health care providers and community parents/caregivers.

MCHN Program effectively addresses healthy lifestyle, healthy and sick child care & nutrition, food safety, personal and environmental hygiene, access to safe drinking water, reproductive health, safe motherhood and essential newborn care concepts at community level through development of public health materials, and public awareness and promotional campaigns (seminars, workshops, training sessions, positive deviance - HEARTH sessions and healthy food–fair competitions).

“Safe motherhood, healthy childhood and happy family” project  

Since June 2009 WVA initiated “Safe motherhood, healthy childhood, happy family” 3-year-project.  In order to assure that “children enjoy good health”, WVA is seeking to strengthen its Maternal Child Health and Nutrition country programs. With this project, World Vision aims at: 

• Educating people on healthy nutrition, empowering caregivers and children to keep themselves healthy.
• Building the capacity of community groups to address and monitor local causes of illness, death, and malnutrition, advocate for quality health service delivery, and monitor home-based care services.
• Partnership with national government and other stakeholders to ensure delivery of quality health and nutrition services to the community level.

Within the project, numerous capacity-building initiatives are planned at Alaverdi, Gavar and Yerevan ADPs for community active members, community health care workers.   Trainings and workshops will be organised, mother and father support groups will be established, friendly health education materials and public-social advertisements will be distributed.