Going to the mat for her daughter’s health

CWS programs may look different from one country to the next, but from Argentina to Vietnam, there’s something that they all have in common: we get to work with some really incredible people. Ma Than Dar, 29, is one of these people.

Ma Than Dar lives in Yae Le Gyi village in Myanmar with her 35-year-old husband U Thet Naing. The couple has one daughter, Ei Ei Phyu. Life here can be far from easy. In addition to being a full-time mom and managing their household, Ma Than Dar used to work as a day laborer outside the village. U Thet Naing works as a fisherman. They were raising Ei Ei Phyu on about $35 per month of combined income.

Although they were doing their best, Ei Ei Phyu’s parents struggled to buy enough high-quality food for her in addition to paying for other household expenses. It was heartbreaking but not completely surprising, then, when a nutrition screening in 2017 showed that Ei Ei Phyu was malnourished. The screening was sponsored by CWS through a program that helps parents of young children make sure the little ones have enough nutritious food to grow up healthy.

Ma Than Dar was alarmed by this news. She immediately launched into action, joining every nutrition education session she could. She was most interested in learning about how important it is for Ei Ei Phyu to have nourishment from different food groups. She was glad to be reminded of tips for making sure she was preparing food in a healthy and sanitary way.  And after she successfully completed the workshops, she and U Thet Naing received a rooster, three hens and four different types of vegetable seeds!

She took the seeds, poultry and information and got to work. Here we are in 2018, and Ma Than Dar has 15 chickens and lots of eggs to eat or sell for extra money. She has long beans, eggplant, pumpkin and bok choy to eat. Her family has more food, and it is of higher nutritional value for them all, especially little Ei Ei Phyu. Ma Than Dar makes sure that she prepares and cooks food in a healthy way.

Each month Ei Ei Phyu’s weight increases, and she has been consistently growing.

Word spread, and her family and neighbors began to admire Ma Than Dar for the change she made happen. Recently, Ma Than Dar was elected to be one of two Mother-Leaders for her village. She joined two additional workshops that focused on growth measurement and exclusive breastfeeding. Now, she co-leads the monthly growth monitoring for all at-risk children in the village. She shares information with others about breastfeeding practices, like recommending exclusive breastfeeding for six months and then adding soft nutrition food supplements later. No tea or adult drinks and food for new babies! She also teaches other mothers and caregivers about good personal and family hygiene during monthly Self-Help Group mothers’ meetings.

Being the driven woman that she is, though, Ma Than Dar didn’t stop there. In March 2018, she was one of five mothers chosen to receive a loan of about $100 through a vote by their Self-Help Group. Ma Than Dar had a plan. As she had presented to the group, she invested the loan plus about $65 of her own savings in starting a mat-weaving business. She already had weaving skills, and she had done market research to determine the cost of materials and how much she would be able to sell her products for.

Her confidence paid off. So far, she has an average monthly income of about $48 from her mat-weaving business. That means she has more than doubled her family’s income, and she no longer needs to work as a day laborer. She has more time to stay home and care for her daughter – plus their chickens and garden!