UNICEF, in collaboration with the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Board, has targeted no fewer than 145,000 children aged 0-59 months for nutrition services in Igabi LGA of the state within five days.
The exercise, which included antenatal services for women in the communities, is targeted across 16 wards, and over 600 communities in the Igabi LGA of the state.
UNICEF Nutrition Specialist, Kaduna Field Office, Mrs Chinwe Ezeife said this on Thursday, being the fourth day of the health camp integrated primary health care services and mass screening in Igabi LGA.
Speaking to newsmen at the sideline of the exercise, she said it was planned to further improve the health and nutrition status of children and women in the LGA.
She said that the initiative by UNICEF was borne out of the Tudun Biri Army’s incidental drone attack which occurred in December 2023.
Ezeife explained that the Tudun Biri attack drew the attention of all the tiers of Government, among other concerned citizens, where the vice president on a visit to the community, saw many children who were malnourished.
She, however, said malnutrition cannot be talked about without other health indices.
They include water, hygiene and sanitation, birth registration, antenatal services, immunisation, tetanus for pregnant women, and vitamin ‘A’ supplementation among others, which were observed to be poor.
Following this, she pointed out that UNICEF, with its special mandate of health and nutrition for women and children, in collaboration with the board, planned to strengthen the integrated primary health care services.
“We want to quickly establish the nutritional situation in Igabi LGA. Tudun Biri is just a community, whatever is happening there has a likelihood in other wards and settlements in the LGA because it is a homogeneous community,” Ezeife said.
Speaking further, the specialist said the health camp strategy has 116 health teams comprising six persons in each team.
Among them, three will provide health services and nutrition, while the others will record childbirth registration, and water and hygiene practices.
She added that they would also provide antenatal services and counselling of children and pregnant women on appropriate infant and young child complementing feeding.
Ezeife also said they were using the opportunity to fetch out the children who have not received any immunisation since their birth, whereupon diagnosis, they would either be addressed there or referred to high facilities.
“We have seen many children who have been screened and those who are severely wasted. As we are documenting them.
”We do that after we have started them on treatment of severe wasting with Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF).
”Beyond today, they will continue visiting health facilities to continue treatment,” Ezeife said.
Earlier, the Director, of Public Health, Kaduna State Ministry of Health, Dr Abubakar Idris described malnutrition as a serious issue bedevilling the country as a whole.
He stressed that malnutrition is a key indicator of the well-being of children and communities.
According to him, malnutrition is not just a health issue, but multi-sectoral, where the state’s Planning and Budget Commission coordinates all the relevant sectors and partners in the state to have a united approach to fighting the issue.
At the policy level, Idris said the state has several policies that were geared towards addressing infant and young child nutrition, which acts as a guide in implementing interventions that would reduce the burden of malnutrition in the state.
He said, “We conduct mobile outreaches in remote and hard to reach communities to identify children with malnutrition and link them up with services.
”We also have other programme such the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria project, which are all targeted in the health and nutrition of our children.”
Also, the Assistant Nutrition Focal Person (NFP) of Igabi LGA, Habiba Yusuf, said the community has several children aged from six months to five years suffering from malnutrition.
She also said there were cases of children who were never immunised.
Yusuf said inadequate and lack of balanced diet improper personal and environmental hygiene, and poverty were some of the causes of malnutrition in the community.
She advised the women to patronise health facilities and ensure good hygiene and intake of good food.
One of the Ward Heads, Haruna Sulaiman, of the Ado Gwaram area, Rigasa, lamented that the women and children especially were not getting adequate attention from the government.
He, however, commended UNICEF, the state government and other partners for the exercise in the community, describing it as critical in improving their health status.
Sulaiman urged the government to schedule sensitisation programmes for the community on how to process healthy meals.
“We have the food, but most of our households lack the knowledge of processing them to give the needed balanced diet,” he said.
One of the Community Volunteers, Atine Jume, said they were very observant of pregnant women in the community, through monitoring in gatherings such as weddings and naming ceremonies.
Jume said they always stressed to the women on the need and importance of antenatal services, and immunisation of their babies after birth.
She explained, “In the course of doing this, we sometimes quarrel with the women who always accuse us of disturbing them.
”If they insist, we sometimes report them to their husbands or the ward head.”
She called on the government to build a health facility for them in the community.
Jume added that distance and poverty sometimes play a role in deterring women from going to health facilities for medical check-ups and other services for themselves and their children.
NAN
