Community-Level Nutrition Interventions in Sri Lanka: A Case Study

Abstract

The article offers a brief survey of the national background and overall situation regarding nutrition and needs at a community level before considering in detail three private programmes engaged in community level intervention. One of these, the Sarvodaya Sangamaya, which aims at mobilizing voluntary labour for village reconstruction, has an outreach programme which trains the staff of its pre-school projects. The service integrates pre-school nutrition and community health care. Trainees have generally completed nine years of schooling and after preparatory training in the village these young women are given two weeks at district centres and three months at headquarters. Courses cover child development, nutrition, community feeding programmes and basic health care for children and mothers. Other nutrition programmes which are examined all have a very strong educative element in order to overcome the dependence of rehabilitation programmes and they illustrate work towards self-reliance.