UNICEF Committed To Addressing Malnutrition Challenges In Nigeria – Official

He said that the tour was to personally assess one of its service centres, the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) in the area with a view to addressing challenges if any.Dr Adam, who expressed happiness with the commitment of health workers and other community volunteers at the centres in tackling challenges among malnourished children, urged them to sustain the tempo.

According to him, the Ready to Use Therapeutic Food, (RUTF) provided by UNICEF for the children are free of charge; and called on parents, especially mothers, to avail their children the opportunity of its CMAM programmes to improve their health.

“Basically, I came here to see things for myself, and look into our activities, how the health workers/community volunteers succeed in handling malnourished children, what are their challenges, among others.

“We have an issue of malnutrition among children that is why UNICEF and the Federal Government agreed to carry out some interventions in this area.“But we cannot do this without full and active participation of the community, so the involvement of the community is key to the success of our programme, especially in area of addressing malnutrition challenges,” he said.

Dr Adam reiterated the commitment of UNICEF to continue to train and retain health workers and other volunteers of its programmes to improve on the health status of the children in the country.

He added that UNICEF would continue to support the Nigerian government in different areas of health and education, among others, for the overall development of the country.

Ms Chinwe Ezeife, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, also urged parents to give adequate attention to nutritional needs of their children.

While expressing happiness with the successes recorded towards bettering the lives of malnourished children in the area; the Nutritionist equally called on parents and other citizens to always maintain hygiene in the interest of their health and that of their children.

Others who witnessed the event includes; Communication Officer of UNICEF, Kaduna, Mr Rabiu Musa; Director of Primary Healthcare Centre, Mr. Gambo Ibrahim, as well as the Nutrition Focal Person in Keffi Local Government Council, Habiba Umar.