Assessment of infant and young child feeding practices among refugees on Lesvos Island, Greece — 22 February-4 March 2016

More than 1.1 million refugees and migrants have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, mostly travelling from Turkey to the Greek Islands and onwards to Central and Northern Europe. On Lesvos Island alone, more than 85 000 people have arrived since the beginning of 2016. To respond to the urgent needs of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece, Save the Children is implementing services to support Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF).

To understand the specific IYCF context and needs of this population transiting through Greece, a cross-sectional survey of caretakers of infants and young children below 24 months (hereafter referred as “children”) was conducted. Because of the volatile situation, including not being able to access the refugee registration list, the unpredictable and fluctuating arrivals and departures of refugees; movement of refugees within camps, between camps and to the port/city of Mytilini; and impossibility of conducting interviews of some refugees; it was not possible to draw a random sample of the refugee population. Instead a convenience sample of refugees was interviewed. Although we tried to ensure that the sampling was as representative as possible, the results of the assessment might not be representative of the refugee populations arriving at Lesvos and should be interpreted with caution.