The International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH) has called on the government, mothers and other stakeholders to ensure the right feeding for children in order to tackle the menace of severe acute malnutrition in the country.
The Executive Director of ISMPH, Moji Makanjuola, stated this yesterday in Abuja during the dissemination meeting of the European Union- Agents for Citizen Driven Transformation (EU-ACT) supported project on ‘Empowerment of women and the prevention of severe acute malnutrition in the FCT’.
She said Nigeria has very highly serious malnutrition issues such as underfeeding, overfeeding and wrong feeding, adding that “of these, underfeeding is our focus in terms of quality and quantity.”
While saying over two million children are severely acutely malnourished in the country, she said it is preventable when action is duly taken to feed them right.
She said “Get it all right we must. We need to protect our children socio-economically and emancipate them from this malaise by feeding them right.
“Government is striving to get nutrition right but sadly not enough to cover pre-schoolers.”
She added that a major source of malnutrition is poor, uneducated and unempowered mothers without knowledge of adequate, right and affordable food choices.
She said through the programme, 60 women in Kwali and Bwari area councils of the FCT were empowered on how to turn waste to wealth and improved nutritional knowledge.
A beneficiary and women leader from Bwari, Vera Manasseh, said the project empowered women in her area to know how to produce fertilizers and charcoal, to earn income for their families and also prevent malnutrition in their children.
Hajiya Lami Adamu, national president, National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), said advocacy, empowerment and visitation at the grassroots as well as effective use of local foods are key to ending malnutrition in the country.