Four state chapters in the country including Gombe State Chapter of the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (SC-SUNN) are to benefit in Window Two of the pooled fund programme aimed at fighting malnutrition in the country funded by Global Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN).
This was announced by the Chairman, CS-SUNN in Nigeria, Dr David Olayemi, in a chat with Journalists shortly after announcing that Window Two of the pooled fund project would be taking place in Gombe, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano and Oyo States.
He stated this at the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Pooled Fund (window 1) End of Project Report meeting held in Abuja adding that the programme will begin this January 2020 and end in February 2021.
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He further explained that Gombe State was selected so that the gains achieved in the State during the window one of the pooled fund project would be consolidated as according to him, Gombe, being in the Northeast where there are so many challenges, “Our attention had been there a long time”.
He said that “Gombe has demonstrated the position of wanting to change and we have seen that as a very positive thing and therefore, considering what we have done in Gombe, it makes a lot of sense to consolidate on it”.
Also speaking, the Gombe State Coordinator of CS-SUNN, Mrs Comfort Mukollo said that despite what was done during the Window One project, a lot still needs to be done because the State still suffers a high rate of Malnutrition.
She said that the window two project will centre on strengthening coordination adding that advocacy will be playing a key role for budget releases, enlightenment and educating people in the rural areas where malnutrition still persist.
Comfort Mukkolo also said that “there is need for people in the rural areas to adopt the Infant Young Child Feeding (IYCF) model which has to do with using the rich local food production as a preventive measure”.
“The model will not allow children to get malnourished as they will be fed well using the right mix of the local food produce. This also includes exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child”, she stressed.
While calling for Government support so that malnutrition would be drastically reduced or even eliminated, she also called for the Scaling up of the programme to the entire State by strengthening the Local Government and Ward food and Nutrition committees.
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