AGANS

Changemaker: Wisdom Moyo

Country of Implementation: Malawi

Adolescent girls’ under-nutrition in Malawi is widespread but neglected; despite noting that adolescence is a time of increased nutritional needs and where lifelong health habits are established. Poor nutrition during adolescence will not only affect their nutritional status but may also affect the nutritional status of children born to them. In response to this, Wisdom and his team with support from Global Changemakers implemented the ‘Adolescent Girls Access to Nutrition Services (AGANS) project’ to create and expand access to quality nutrition services for improved nutritional outcomes in Mzuzu, Northern region of Malawi. They set up a nutrition facility where they freely offered nutrition assessment, counselling and education services to adolescent girls. The project also provides life skills training and support on adolescent nutrition in targeted schools and communities where three adolescent girls care groups were established to encourage peer support. AGANS project conducted participatory cooking demonstrations on the Malawian six food groups, food processing, and promoted healthy dietary habits and lifestyles; as well as advocating for improved knowledge, attitudes, and practices in nutrition. The project aims to serve more than 2,000 adolescent girls in a period of 12 months and continues to scale up.