The first transfer was D1,500 to every beneficiary while the second transfer was D1, 320 to all the beneficiaries in North Bank, Central River and Upper River Regions
The Building Resilience through Social Transfers for nutrition Security in The Gambia (BReST) was an EU funded three million Euro project facilitated by UNICEF and implemented by the National Nutrition Agency (NaNA) with support from the Department of Social Welfare under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare.
Speaking at the cash distribution in Wuli and Nyakoi Kerewan, Catherine K.G Omo, monitoring and evaluation officer at NaNA said the BReST project was specifically aimed at addressing malnutrition and resilience building strategies through cash transfers, adding that it is the women and children who are usually affected when it comes to it.
She narrated that as a result, the project had the idea of continuing with maternal and child health nutrition as time progresses, saying, “we realised that we could also take part in the Maternal and Child Nutrition Health Result Project (MCNHRP) approach and that is why most of the interventions were only at ten health facilities based on the resources at hand and has resulted us to target six thousand beneficiaries."
According to her, they targeted those ten facilities due to the severity in the beneficiary regions, revealing that they usually conduct nutrition surveillance every six months and it was from that data that qualified the most vulnerable communities they selected.
She further clarified that concerning the elapsed project, they did a registration in 2017 and when they got their targeted number that was when the registration was closed but the numbers are still being maintained for this round as well.
“We work with WFP and we have sent the photos of the beneficiaries and each beneficiary was given a unique ID, and a code to avoid duplication,” she added.
Saikou Drammeh, nutrition field officer at NaNA explained that the enrolment was conducted in the Basse and Demba Kunda catchment areas, adding that health service has no border and the enrolment was done in the entire region.
“A woman is eligible to register when she delivers during the enrolment period and her delivery is less than two weeks, then the mother is given a chance to register,” he said.
He elaborated that a mother can still benefit from the cash transfer even when the baby dies and the same goes to the child, when the mother is no longer alive.
Kaddy Jawneh, a beneficiary said the cash transfer has helped her family, adding that when the money was received, it is been used to buy food for the baby and as well as clothing.
She explained that the cash that was given to them during the the month of Ramadan had helped them in addressing their expenses during and after the holy month.
“We have not only received cash in this project but we were also trained on exclusive breast feeding and the importance of giving them diversified diet,” she added.
She assured of their continued corporation while thanking the stakeholders involved.
