Sindh Nutrition Support Program

ZEEKAY FILMS had been hired by Nutrition Support Program, Health Department, Government of Sindh for their program Enhanced Nutrition for Mothers and Children Project (P131850) as Behavior Change Consultants during the month of July 2017 till December 31, 2018. For the program; financing had been obtained from the donor World Bank and it had ran under the supervision of all the stake holders.
The overall objective of the Nutrition Support Program Sindh (NSPS) is to improve the nutritional status of children under five years and that of pregnant and lactating women by improving the coverage of effective nutrition interventions with a focus on the poor and marginalized within these groups. The program aims to increase its access to the nutrition intervention in selected 9 Districts.

• Badin

• Sangarh

• Umarkot

• Tharparkar

• Tando Muhammad Khan

• Larkana

• Jacobabad

• Kashmore

• Kambar Shahdadkot

Behavior Change Communication was conducted to enhanced levels of knowledge and improved practices with regard to maternal, infant and young child feeding, health and hygiene. The outcomes associated to the objectives were: improved maternal as well as infant and child feeding practices and increase utilization of nutrition services, which will make significant contribution in the reduction of stunting;
The program ran successfully in all the districts and it had increased the awareness among the people of Sindh which not only includes the selected districts but the metropolitan and urban cities as well.
Therefore, a dedicated communication was designed with numerous activities associated with the common cause/problem but with district wise/district based solutions. A complete 360 degrees campaign was designed which includes intervention on Press (Newspapers, EPapers and Blogs), Electronic Media (Satellite National and Regional Channels), Radio (FM targeted districts), Out-of-Home advertising which was not only limited to: Outdoor hoardings, transit advertising (branding of public transport), activations at district – to – Thaluka level, Events, IEC material on IYCF, Social mobilization activities which includes society elders and influencers and a lot more. Digital communication was also one of the strongest components of campaign which catches the eye of major stake holders, policy makers and decision makers. Senior Journalist, Ms. Sana Bucha remained as the BCC ambassador

An analytics report had suggested that the Satellite interventions had reached to more than 640 million viewers, Print and radio had also created awareness among the millions living across Pakistan and specially in the targeted districts and digital interventions had created over 350 million impressions .
in mid-October 2018 had also instructed to Health Department and had asked public sector universities to set up Medical camps in, Sindh to fight from it. He directed the health department to widely and properly implement mother health programme in true letter and spirit. “If mother is healthy and well aware of the health issues such as nutrition, birth spacing, how to take care of them right from conceiving pregnancy to delivery and where to deliver the child and how to take care of the child,” he said.
In almost 2 months on twitter with a hashtag #SayByeToMalnutrition, facebook, Instagram and other vehicles and interventions had also created marked performance and impressions which not only engages a common man but also catches the lime light when Chairman PTI and Chairman PPP took the notice of it and make it as one of the integral parts of their General Election campaigns.

Even at the victory speech and his first address as Prime Minister to the nation, P .M. Imran Khan had Malnutrition/Stunting as one of the major problems of Pakistan that needs to be addressed in his Government. Later in March 2019, Federal Government had dedicated budget for the reduction of stunting in Pakistan in their program Ehsaas. Moreover, Chief Minister Sindh,Syed MuradAli Shah in mid-October 2018 had also instructed to Health Department and had asked public sector universities to set up Medical camps in, Sindh to fight from it. He directed the health department to widely and properly implement mother health programme in true letter and spirit. “If mother is healthy and well aware of the health issues such as nutrition, birth spacing, how to take care of them right from conceiving pregnancy to delivery and where to deliver the child and how to take care of the child,” he said.

The overall communication on all the vehicles was carrying IEC material emphasizing on IYCF (Infant and Young Child Feeding) material which was jointly issued by World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2002. The communication was not only produced creatively in the regional language but in National Language Urdu and International Language English.
According to one of the recent surveys it had been disclosed that the Malnutrition/Stunting in Sindh had been reduced. The success stories of the cases had also been captured visually. Highlights of the communication are as follows: