The Department of Community Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) at the Kochi campus organized a Dissemination workshop of the Infant and Young Child Nutrition Project on December 30, 2013 in association with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).   

The objectives of the workshop was to consolidate the results of the IYCN Project, conducted at Njarakkal, and examine what further inputs were required to make it more comprehensive and sustainable in future.

The participants of this workshop were Child Development Project Officers, Anganwadi workers of the Integrated Child Development Scheme and health workers from the Directorate of Health Services along with other community health workers.  

Inaugurated by the Deputy Mayor of Kochi, Smt. B. Bhadra addressed the audience emphasizing on the need for empowering the community on infant and young child feeding issues. 

Dr. Prem Nair, Medical Director, AIMS, in his presidential address, highlighted the need to tackle perinatal and neonatal mortality which were mainly due to genetic and cardiac anomalies. Dr. Prathapan Nair, Principal, Amrita School of Medicine stressed upon the need for curbing undernutrition in a state like Kerala.  

Valuable insights were also shared by UNICEF Chief for Kerala and Tamil Nadu Dr. Sathish Kumar, who highlighted that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – a UN initiative, could be achieved if states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala would show the way for the rest of the country while Dr. Farhat Saiyed, Nutrition Specialists, UNICEF, put forth the challenges faced by health workers in the field.  

Participants also watched a video show which was used as an intervention for the study, also enacted by the students of Kerala Press Academy.

December 31, 2013 
Health Sciences Campus, Kochi