Rose Star Program (RSP)

A Network of Pediatricians to offer Nutrition services among under 5 children

Low rate of dietary diversity and poor hygiene play a critical role for stunting, wasting and underweight children in Bangladesh. According to BDHS 2022, 22% of under 5 year children are stunted (short of their age),11% are wasted (low weight for their height), 22% are underweight (low weight for their age).

To address these issues, SMC took initiative in 2018 to monitor growth of the children by Blue Star providers. SMC included growth monitoring and counseling services in the basic training curriculum and provided height, weight measuring scale and service registers and growth monitoring cards to Blue Star providers. Using this tool, Blue Star providers can detect inadequate growth of a child earlier and restore proper growth in right time. Based on the experience, in 2022, SMC planned to engage pediatricians to offer growth monitoring and nutrition services.

A sensitization meeting was held at Barishal on September 28, 2021 to know the doctors’ interest and to develop a strategy for pediatricians to include growth monitoring as a tool to improve child nutrition status through them. Thereafter, SMC organized orientation and training programs for the Pediatricians.Training curriculum developed following the national guideline of Institute of Public Health Nutrition.

Currently the network has 328 pediatricians covering 26 districts and it is branded as ‘Rose Star network’. The Rose Star program is an initiative to monitor growth of children under 5 and counsel mothers for improving nutritional status of their children.        

Doctors are selected based on some criteria for attending training on growth monitoring services. Doctor should be a pediatrician, must have private chamber with a good number of children visiting him in their practice, willing to offer GMP services and has interest in child nutrition improvement initiatives.

Following table shows the Rose Star provider coverage by divisions-