"I cooked porridge with a little rice and pork fat for their daily meals and never fed them with crabs, shrimps, fish or vegetables. Older people in my hamlet told me the children were too small to have such dishes."

Hai's third child, however, looks healthy. "She eats well so she rarely gets sick and never has to go to hospital," the woman says happily. "Unlike her two sisters, I prepare her meals with a variety of food. I raise her with the knowledge that I have gained from training courses on childcare."

Hai, 39, lives in An Cau Hamlet, Tong Tran Commune, which is one of nine communes included in World Vision's Phu Cu Area Development Programme (ADP). She participated in trainings organised by World Vision after delivering her third daughter in 2005.

"I was taught how to take care of my child, to cook her a nutritious meal and to look after my personal hygiene at the courses. When I brought up my first two children, I didn't have such knowledge and only learnt experience of older women in my family and in the hamlet," she says.

When World Vision commenced work in Phu Cu ADP, 80 km from Hanoi in 1999, more than one third of children under five years old in the district suffered from malnutrition while diarrhea was a common disease for local kids.

"Local women at child-bearing age used to have little knowledge of maternal and child healthcare but they didn't mind about it. They took care of themselves and their children in the way that their mothers or grandmothers had done," says Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ha, Phu Cu ADP's Project Assistant of Health.

To improve maternal and child health, Phu Cu ADP has organised a number of training courses on the topics for both pregnant women and mothers. It has also invited other caretakers such as grandparents, fathers or older siblings of the children to attend childcare trainings to ensure that all family members are educated and trained on how to better care for children.

"To make them interested in the trainings, we encourage their active participation in every lesson. For example, we ask caretakers to bring their own food at a nutrition practice lesson so they can prepare a good meal for their children from available food that they have at home," Ha continues.

Since the programme started, World Vision has witnessed improvements on local childcare in this district. The rate of malnutrition has dropped from 36% to 22% in Tong Tran Commune, while local children seldom suffer from diarrhea today, reveals Mrs Dao Thuy Ngoc, who has worked as a hamlet facilitator for Phu Cu ADP since 2000.

"Not only Hai but also and other local women have been aware of good childcare practices," Ngoc says. "In the past, a woman in lactation period followed a poor diet without fat food, eggs and fish for weeks when her baby got diarrhoea. As a result, the child got more ill and in danger of malnourishment. After the training, local women understand that a nutritious meal is necessary for their children, especially when they get sick."

Mrs Hai was awarded the third prize at a World Vision-held nutrition competition in the district last year. The activity was the first of its kind in the district. 

"I'm happy with the prize and the knowledge that I have had from the training courses on childcare. Apart from raising my third child well, I know to cook nutritious meals for the whole family. My first two daughters, aged 11 and 13, enjoy their meals more than before."