
By Matilda Atieno
Helen Keller international convened partners to a Two-day regional close out meeting for a vitamin A supplementation (VAS) project in Nyanza region.
The meeting held in Kisumu was attended by high-level delegates from the 5 counties across Nyanza, including departmental heads and decision makers in the areas of nutrition, immunization, Early Childhood Development Education ( ECDE) and health information.
The meeting was officially opened by County Minister for Education Mr. John Awiti commended the project for offering an enabling environment and reinforced capacities of the service delivery systems at the community and school levels by providing children with the comprehensive nutrition services that they need for their survival and development.
He recognized that the project was a stroke of genius in integration of ECDE centers and children’s health, noting that Vitamin A Supplementation (VAS) as the missing gap in establishing a strong foundation for children has enabled healthy children who enjoy continuous, uninterrupted learning.
More than 20 dedicated team members gathered to celebrate the project’s achievements, exchange lessons learned, and discuss the future under the next phase. The meeting also identified and honored dedicated team members through gifts.

Having developed the Kisumu County Nutrition Action Plan (KNAP) 2021 – 2023 with a vision to ensure a malnutrition free Kisumu, the document served as a strategy framework for addressing the triple burden of malnutrition in the County.
As the project phased out, Kisumu shared its best practices learned in the last three years of work in the field, including county examples of transitioning to delivery of VAS through routine, primary healthcare systems while maintaining high coverage of VAS.
Helen Keller international with the support of the County Governments in the region, has been a leader in VAS for over three years. In Kisumu, the organization provided evidence-based technical support and guidance to help the County make it’s commitments to ensure no child is missed with life saving VAS.
Counties that sent representation to the closeout meeting included, Kisumu, Nyamira, Migori, Homabay and Siaya.
