Savica supported the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) by providing technical assistance to a project with Business Watch Indonesia (BWI). The aim of this assistance was to help tea farmers to improve their dietary patterns and nutritional status. The project reached 32,000 tea farmers in Central and West Java.
Savica developed a training manual on Good Nutritional Practices (GNP) for BWI to use in the training of their trainers (ToT). This manual included revised media to use in the trainings, as well as background reading for the trainers and participants to deepen their understanding of nutrition issues. Topics covered in this manual include understanding of good nutrition, its importance for tea farmers, and especially for pregnant women and young children, recognizing and choosing nutritious foods and correct ways to prepare them. In addition, it covers the Individual Dietary Diversity Score (IDDS), a simple tool to be used in awareness raising as well as in the monitoring and evaluation of the program, and guidelines on sampling of respondents for the baseline and endline surveys. Available in Indonesian and English, the manual can be readily adjusted to other specific target groups. This project has led to the development of a number of playful tools to raise awareness of the importance of dietary diversity, including reusable calendar-check lists, a sorting game, a quartet game, a memory game.
Savica also provided input in existing and specially developed materials to use in educating tea farmers about balanced nutrition. Savica trained BWI staff and master trainers in the use of the manual and the IDDS tool. We provided technical assistance for the monitoring and evaluation, including training BWI staff on sampling, interviewing and data analysis. Savica cleaned and analysed the data of the baseline and endline. A significant increase in dietary diversity among the female tea farmers was found after this intervention. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to link them to nutritional status.
