Katilu- June 25, 2025 (Public Communication and Media Relations)
The Department for Health and Sanitation in partnership with SAPCONE has conducted the piloting of a Positive Deviance (PD) Hearth program. This is geared towards empowering communities to utilise locally available resources and food to address malnutrition and offer sustainable nutrition in Aroo Sub-County.
Since the project kick-off, 968 children have benefited including 457 children under the age of five who were enrolled in the first phase of initial assessment and the new 511 enrolled by end of May 2025. The program targeted facilities with a high prevalence of underweight children in Lopur, Korinyang, Lokapel, Kalemung’orok, and Kaputir.
The PD Hearth approach conducts a 12-day Hearth session where families are trained to cook food for their children from the provided kitchen gardens. A follow-up is carried out after to assess improvement in terms of body mass index. The ‘Hearth’ in context refers to a community setting, often a home, where these practices are shared and learned.
Speaking at the meeting, Chief Officer for Preventive and Promotive Janerose Tioko outlined the uniqueness of the program, mentioning that it empowers the community to utilise locally available resources to provide sustainable nutrition practices at community level. This will effectively address severe and acute malnutrition cases among children across the county.
“The intervention is unique as it equips the community with sustainable nutrition practices using locally available and nutritious food such as groundnuts, eggs and kale to mitigate the severity of malnutrition,” she said.
Chief Tioko issued a call for action, urging stakeholders, including local communities, NGOs, and government agencies, to collaborate in sustaining and expanding the program. She also highlighted the need for increased resource allocation and community engagement to ensure long-term impact.
The CCO also assured the implementing partners that the county is willing to support the program further to strengthen nutrition practices and ensure the sustainability of these community-driven interventions. This will improve health outcomes for vulnerable and impoverished families.
Director of Community Health Services, Dr Joseph Lolepo expressed a strong commitment to support and scale up the PD Hearth approach to combat malnutrition in Turkana County, emphasising the model’s effectiveness in leveraging community-driven solutions to improve child health outcomes.
SAPCONE Nutrition Coordinator Nickson Omuse added that so far, the program has enhanced the capacity of 24 healthcare workers from 16 facilities and 100 Community Health Promoters who were trained on home-based nutrition training cascading these practices further at the household level.
Director Lolepo also acknowledged SAPCONE’s grassroots mobilization, and World Food programme’s technical and logistical support, which have been instrumental in the program’s success.
Present were other SAPCONE staff, Community Health Assistants, Community Health Promoters, and the community stakeholders.
