Dolakha, July 28

Investments by different donor agencies in health and nutrition programmes has gone down the drain in Dolakha.

Aaitamaya Thami, 46, of Kyangpol in Kalinchowk Rural Municipality, is a mother of six children. Her two children are below the age of two years. A large hoarding board with messages of Golden Thousand Day programme hangs outside the ward office.

Aaitamaya’s two children, however, are malnourished. “We work as daily wage earners which is just enough to manage two meals a day. We have no knowledge of nutrition,” Thami said.

GTD programme, funded by USAID, is in operation for the past six years in the district with the objective of curbing malnutrition among women and babies of impoverished and marginalised communities.

USAID has been operating the GTD programme in coordination with Helen Keller International in the district. Hellen Keller International is launching its activities through Suahara Project on health and nutrition at Kalinchowk’s Kyangpol. Thami said she heard about the GTD programme on radio once. “Once a baby chicken was given to us, but it died in a month,” Thami recounted.

Like Thami, hundreds of people from backward communities have failed to benefit from the GTD programme in the district. Around 200 Thami people live in Kalinchowk’s Kyangpol area.

Suahara Project spent millions on nutrition and health in the past six years. The problem of malnutrition, however, has worsened. Suahara has already completed its first phase of five-year programme. The project is running its second phase of programme in the district. The project has spent over Rs 60 million, said Dolakha Coordinator of GTD Kiran Shrestha. He said most of the amount was spent on workshops, seminars, meeting allowance, and administrative work. According to District Health Office, Dolakha, there are more than 400 malnutrition patients in the district.

District Health Office Chief Rajendra Prasad Sah, however, said malnutrition was on the decline gradually. Sah, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the modus operandi of some INGOs. He pledged to coordinate with stakeholders and devise a new strategy to tackle the problem of malnutrition.