Supporting PLWs and their children in the age (6-23) months suffering from malnutrition in rural areas of Homs The protracted crisis in Syria marks 10 years leaving a devastating impact on the socio-economic situations especially for the people living in underserved areas with high severity of needs, this continue to impact the ability of people to obtain their basic nutrition needs due to huge increase of prices in comparison with the average income of people in Syria. The increase in prices has been worsened this year due to poor rainfall season which affected the costs of agriculture products. 'all of this led to the fact of 4.9 million PLWs and children have urgent and life-saving nutrition needs. chronic malnutrition is expected to increase. only one of 4 children in the age of (6 to 24 moths) is receiving a minimum accepted diet in terms of quantity and diversity'. (HNO 2021)
The project will focus on targeting mothers and children in the age of (6 to 23 months) suffering from malnutrition in the underserved areas in the rural of Homs especially the eastern rural and some areas in the northern by providing a life-saving nutrition-related assistance based on monthly vouchers that enable them to buy nutrition supplementary products such as (supplementary cereals for infants, chicken, meat, vegetables) which will enable them to obtain their nutrition needs.

The planned intervention will be based on home based MUAC through a trained team, home-based advice and awareness raising to visited mothers, in addition to group awareness sessions which will be provided to mothers on optimal infant and young children feeding and caring practices and how to identify the signs of malnutrition in addition to advices on appropriate nutrition for mothers and children. Also, we will coordinate with UNICEF to distribute micronutrients for children. 
-	Selection criteria of beneficiaries:
1-	Beneficiaries should be from the targeted locations.
2-	Mother with children between (6-23) months.
3-	Take the MUAC test by our team and the test shows the case of malnutrition.
4-      We will conduct socio-economic studies and choose the in-need ones taking into consideration the severity of malnutrition and No. of children between (6-23) months.

-	The Vouchers modality: It is conditional vouchers for nutrition that will enable the beneficiaries to buy (supplementary cereals for infants, chicken, meat, vegetables, dairy products).

-	The duration of vouchers:  is for 10 consecutive months.


The activities of the project will reach for PLWs and their children in the age of (6-23) months who suffers malnutrition to:
1. providing them with nutrition support vouchers. 
2. Screening for children suffering from malnutrition through home based MUAC 
3. Group raising awareness sessions on nutrition topics, distribution of MUAC stripes and training mothers to use them.
4. in addition to that, beneficiaries will receive one-to-one home-based advice
5. Distribution micronutrients for children in coordination with UNICEF. 
Also, we will conduct Post distribution monitoring for the beneficiaries of vouchers and micronutrients.

Since there is no available markets in the rural areas (especially the eastern rural areas of Homs) to disburse the amounts of vouchers to buy nutritious food, Al-Birr will provide transportation means to the markets and back to the villages of targeted beneficiaries every month, in order to enable beneficiaries to have access to markets and choose what they need of the nutritious food.