The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has granted 175 million meticais for a project to standardize maternal and child health data in Mozambique. The program, which began in May last year, is currently in its pilot phase in two districts of Gaza province (Chibuto and Macia) and Niassa, in the south and north of the country, respectively.

Called the "Project to Strengthen Maternal and Child Nutrition Services - ProNUT", the initiative, according to JICA, aims to introduce a unified child and women's health booklet for prenatal consultations in order to facilitate the monitoring of clinical history, thus avoiding the loss of prenatal information.

JICA's head of health, Nobuhird Kadoi, explained a few days ago during an evaluation of the project that the booklet is a model for monitoring and disseminating the care that women must observe from their gestational period, childbirth and postpartum until the child is five years old.

"This mother and child health booklet contains educational information during pregnancy, childbirth, preparation for breastfeeding, nutritional information and the signs of risk. In this project we want to measure the impact especially in relation to those women who have had low birth weight babies and measure the rate of exclusive breastfeeding within six months," said Nobuhird Kadoi.

According to the project's expert, Naomi Amaike, the Maternal and Child Services (MCH) booklet also contains explanatory illustrations that make it easier for pregnant women, even if they can't read, to understand the possible risks and precautions to be taken during this period.

At the same time, the SMI project expert also said that JICA is stepping up the training of Multi-Purpose Health Workers (PHWs) with a view to improving the dissemination of information on maternal and child nutrition. To this end, the Japanese government is training more than 300 health professionals and PHCs, with the aim of strengthening communication between the parties and improving the parameters of maternal and child nutrition.

"The training aims to provide information to mothers and pregnant women," she said.

However, in Gaza province, the authorities expect the project to reach nearly 18,000 children aged between zero and five and their mothers, in a total of 25 health facilities.

In addition, the head of the Public Health Department in Gaza province, Victor Chivure, said on the occasion that "the introduction of the new booklet ensures the safe monitoring of the child and the mother from pregnancy, childbirth and the child's growth", stressing that "the new model facilitates the intervention of the professionals who monitor the health units".

After evaluating this pilot phase, which ends next year, the Government of Japan hopes to extend the project to all health facilities in the country.