Malnutrition: 800,000 Kano Children Suffers Stunted Growth as a Result of Poor Dieting- UNICEF

The Co-Chairman, Kano Emirate Council Committee on Health and Human Development (KECCoHD), Dr. Dayyabu Muhammad has disclosed that poor dieting intake  has left 800,000 children in Kano state  between the ages of 6 to 59 months stunted .

Referring to a recent baseline survey conducted by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) at a one-day town hall meeting organized by KECCoHD in collaboration with the UNICEF in Bichi, Muhammad revealed that plans were ongoing to ensure that 25,075 mothers and caregivers to children aged 6-23 months in Bichi and Sumaila local government areas are reached by counselling and education messages on improving dietary diversity

The town hall meeting was convened as part of the outreach programme to educate community leaders on dietary diversity with a view to save 23,508 children aged 6-23 months by ensuring that they have their direct increased to at least five food groups including one animal source protein.

Also speaking at the town hall meeting, the UNICEF Chief of Kano office, Maulid Warfa said that the dietary diversity initiative is a strategy to improve the feeding of children from 6 months to 23 months supposedly after the successful completion of exclusive breastfeeding.

According to him, the choice of Bichi and Sumaila for the model project was based on some proven scientific surveys done which he said had made it critical to start the practice with the 2 local governments, adding that the achievement to be recorded in these 2 local governments would determine the level of scaling up.