The Central Highlands province of Gia Lai has carried out a project on enhancing nutrition for mothers and children in a bid to improve the population quality, particularly among ethnic minority groups. The project focused on education for mothers on the importance of nutrition and how to improve quality of daily meals through the Livelihood Enhancement Groups (LEG). In 2016, 66 LEG groups have been formed in the province, each of which has between 10 – 20 member households. All LEG members are women, particularly pregnant ones and mothers with children aged under five. K’pa H’nga from Oi Briu village, Chu Mo commune, Ia Pa district, said she has four children, two of them are small and underweight. She shared that she used to think two meals with rice a day are enough for them. But after joining LEG, K’pa H’nga has learnt many things about nutrition and now she cares more about the quality of each meal to ensure nutrition for her family members. Nguyen Thi Bich Hanh, a worker of the project, highlighted the remarkable improvement in awareness of the local community, particularly in the ethnic minority groups. Many now save some of their eggs and vegetable for the family meals instead of selling all of them for cash, she said. The LEG members also help teach other women in their community how to better take care of their families, Hanh said. (http://en.vietnamplus.vn/ [1] Nov 29)
