1.2 Planning nutritional care and support in your community
When you are planning nutritional care and support in your community, the first step is to calculate the number of children under five, and the number of pregnant and lactating women who might need nutritional care and support in one year. According to the 2007 population statistics of Ethiopia, the number of children under two years is calculated as 8% of the total population, while the number of children under five years of age is 14.6%. The Ethiopian population statistics also indicate that the number of pregnant women is 4% of the general population. This percentage is used to estimate the number of pregnant and lactating mothers in a given community. The percentages will vary to some extent between communities, but they can be used to estimate numbers with reasonable accuracy. Look at Box 1.1 which illustrates how to calculate the number of children under the age of 2 years in a kebele.
Box 1.1 Calculating the number eligible for nutritional care and support in a kebele
The percentage of children under the age of two years in a kebele of 5,000 people is calculated as follows:
How many children under five and how many pregnant women are there in the kebele?
You calculate the number of children under five years as follows: 5,000 x 14.6 ÷ 100 = 730 children under five; the number of pregnant women would be 5,000 x 4 ÷ 100 = 200 in total.
Activity 1.1 Planning nutritional care and support
How many children under two or under five and how many pregnant and lactating mothers are there in your kebele? Make a note of your answers in your Study Diary to share with your Tutor at your Study Support Meeting.
Answer
We do not know the numbers of your kebele but if you use the example above to help you do your calculation, you will now be able to plan nutrition care and support for children and mothers in the community.
1.1.2 Childhood and maternal malnutrition in Ethiopia