Refresher training on SAM and MAM for Preschool Teachers

The Preschool Education team recently organised a SAM and MAM refresher training session for all the teachers and assistants of our 29 preschool centres. SAM or Severe Acute Malnourishment and MAM or Moderate Acute Malnourishment are the two concepts that were refreshed for our teachers and assistants. These are conditions that affect the growth of a child, both physically and mentally and in order to protect our preschool students from the perils of malnutrition, this training and such refresher courses are of utmost importance.

The causes of malnutrition can be many, including, inadequate food intake, inefficient absorption of nutrients from the food consumed. And considering that our students belong to the lowest financial strata of our society, which can just make it hand-to-mouth financially, these children are susceptible to malnourishment which can affect their growth by exposing them to conditions like stunting, low IQ levels, low immunity leading to kids often falling sick or even death in severe cases.

To avoid such morbid situations in our community, these sessions enable our teachers with methods to check for nourishment in the child, by way of checking their weight, height, oedema and other elements of growth which helps them conclude the level of nutrition in each child. This then helps us to determine whether any child needs special attention for their nutrition and the issue can then be addressed adequately for the child.

The session was an interactive one, as this was a refresher session and the teachers were glad to have repeated this training that helped them clarify some of the doubts they had previously, and also by simply revising the same. The SAM and MAM checking of children will happen now in recent future and this training will prove to be extremely beneficial then. For this, we thank Fight Hunger Foundation that conducted this training for us!