Help us fight malnutrition

Support our pilot program to help change the story for severely malnourished children leaving hospital.

Donations $15,530
Goal $20,000

After decades of conflict, this tiny nation has halved the child malnutrition rate in the last 20 years.

But one in five children are still undernourished, stunting development.

We have identified an opportunity to improved the process of returning to the community after children are hospitalised with malnutrition

We only need $20,000 to secure enough funding for the program for two years.

Donate and share with your network and together we can make a real impact fighting this entirely preventable condition.

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What is the pilot program?

Child malnutrition is a ubiquitous problem in Timor-Leste and malnutrition is a common reason for admission to Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares (HNGV, the national referral hospital in Dili).

Whilst there is a strong focus on medical assessment and treatment of children hospitalised with malnutrtion, we have identified gaps in the continuity of care when children are discharged from hospital to the community.

In particular there is a need of education and counselling for families, an established referral pathway, better discharge planning, and improved communication between hospital and community health centre staff.

This pilot program will strengthen the continuity of care for children hospitalised with malnutrition by improving discharge planning and referral to community services.

Our research at has shown an average of 15 children are hospitalised with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) each month

Project Goals and Activities

Project Goals

The specific goals of this project are to:

  1. Implement regular education and counselling activities at HNGV for families with children hospitalised with SAM.
  2. Develop and implement an appropriate and consistent discharge planning process at HNGV.
  3. Support community health centres to receive and manage referrals for children recently discharged from hospital.
  4.  Assess the acceptability and experience of the program to families.

Expected Outcomes

This project will improve the continuity of care for children discharged from hospital after treatment for sever acute malnutrition.

It will support more families to have sustained engagement with community services and will provide a model of care that can be replicated throughout Timor-Leste.

What will we spend the Money on?

Specific Activities

  1. Work with major stakeholders and end-users to develop tools (such as interactive games, flip charts, and toys) for an inpatient education and counselling program. These will be based on international and local guidelines and will be supplementary to resources available (but not currently in use) from other agencies.
  2. Develop a discharge planning and referral process, including relevant documentation and communication pathways.
  3. Upskill and mentor relevant healthcare staff on the use of discharge planning and referral tools.
  4. Undertake structured interviews of 10 – 15 parents to gather feedback on the developed model of care.