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Dec 10, 2014 / 15:15

Alive & Thrive project promotes breastfeeding in Vietnam

On December 9, the Alive & Thrive project (A & T) has conducted review and share their experiences to reduce malnutrition of children in Vietnam by improving infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices.

The project was implemented in Vietnam for the past 6 years, which has significantly contributed to the improvement in complementary feeding for children in the first 2 years of life.
 
 
Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien confirmed that for the last 6 years A & T made Vietnam become a leading country in the fight against malnutrition of children.
The goal of the project is to double the proportion of mothers breastfeeding in the first 6 months, which means that children are exclusively breastfed and not drink any others, including water. 
It is estimated that from 2010 to 2014, exclusive breast-feeding rates have increased from 19 to 58 per cent, almost tripling in programme areas that had the Mat troi be tho social franchise, where mothers received IYCF counselling services.
Nutrition Institute is one of the partners in the collaboration with the Alive & Thrive project for the past 6 years to carry out interactive consulting model. 
This model has brought good results.
Nutrition Institute vows to continue to sustain the project after the project ended in December (2014) and transfered their ownership of the brand Mat troi be tho as well as the system of consultant to the Institute of Nutrition.
The Institute of Nutrition continued to manage 1,100 Mat troi be tho consulting rooms and 700 groups supporting infant feeding, at the sam time announcing and using national standard training materials on infant feeding which had been approved by the Ministry of Health.
The project also conducted a media campaign including advertising on television, radio, print publications, outdoor signs, and on the bus.
The results show that mothers remembering messages from the campaign who tend to  breast-feed their children.
If everyone get message through this campaign, the proportion of  exclusive breast feeding in the first 6 months will increase further.
The Alive & Thrive project also recorded achievements and changes in Vietnam's policies related to the infant feeding such as Congress’ decision on increasing the period of maternity to 6 months, tightening regulations of prohibiting advertisements of products substituting breast milk for 24-month children.
The first result shows that mothers entitled the 6-month period of maternity who tend to breast-feed their children in the first 6 months.
In addition, the program supports breastfeeding in workplaces with active cooperation of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour and the private sector, which has had good results with 70 rooms milking, milk storage.
The Alive & Thrive project is an initiative which carried out in 6 years (2009-2014) to improve nutrition of infants by the exclusive breastfeeding and the implementation of additional improvement in complementary feeding in countries including Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Vietnam. 
In Vietnam, the Alive & Thrive project in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, National Institute of Nutrition, Women's Union, Vietnam General Confederation of Labour have implemented the project to double the proportion of breastfeeding in the first 6 months, and improve the quality and quantity of food supplements and decrease 2% of under-nutrition of children each year.
Mat troi be tho of the Alive & Thrive project has focused on services such as encouraging, supporting and managing exclusive breastfeeding, supporting and encouraging additional improvement in complementary feeding. 
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