Anaemia Prevention Badge Project online
3 April 2008
The training programme and materials’ aim is to help Girl Guides educate other girls and women in their communities about anaemia and its prevention and to encourage the effective use of iron and folic acid supplements during pregnancy. Africa Region WAGGGS began the anaemia education project in 2006 in Uganda, Rwanda and Swaziland in partnership with the Regional Centre for Quality of Health Care (RCQHC), and the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) Project at the Academy for Educational Development (AED), with funding from USAID.
The Anaemia Prevention Badge handbook and workbook for Girl Guides and the training manual for leaders can now be downloaded from the left hand side of this page or from the resources section in English and French.
What is anaemia?
Anaemia is a qualitative or quantitative deficiency of haemoglobin, a molecule inside red blood cells. Blood cannot carry enough oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. The anaemic person can feel very tired, weak and dizzy.
Recent data from Côte d’Ivoire demonstrated that 40–50 per cent of children and adult women were anaemic and that Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA) accounted for about 50 per cent of the anaemia in schoolchildren and women, and 80 per cent in preschool children (2–5 years old).
Source: Joint statement by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, Geneva 2004.