Gombe prevents malnutrition with 60,000 pieces of complementary food
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
No fewer than 1,000 babies who are moderately malnourished would benefit from the production of 60,000 pieces of complementary food in Gombe State.
Speaking during the launch of 3rd & 4th batches of complementary food, Commissioner Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Aishatu Maigari, said state is committed to ensuring that malnutrition is reduced to the lowest minimum.
Recall that in May 2021, governor Muhammadu Yahaya, commenced the distribution of 1st and 2nd batches of the complementary food, 30,000 sachets each at the Incubation centre, amounting to 60,000 pieces in total.
Gombe in the North East of Nigeria has huge burden of under five deaths, resulting from malnutrition, according to 2018 NDHS report.
Maigari said, “We have had gaps and we have seen collaboration from alot of people especially in distribution. We have designated facility across the 11 LGA’s were the product is given free, we have so far produced 120,000 sachets of 100grams of this product going round to treat 1,000 children across Gombe State.
“As a Ministry where knowledge is embedded, we didn’t just produce this, we trained women. So far we have trained over 200 women and youths. We have empowered them in the production of complementary feeding, we want it to become a community project.”
According to her, efforts are ongoing to ensure that the standardization of the product with NAFDAC, stressing that by 2022 the state would formulate Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for the cure of Severe Acute Malnutrition.
“This one is to prevent and not to cure Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in the state, but what we are targeting with this complementary food is moderately malnourished children. We have been working with the civil societies and they pep us up and made us to look inwards and we had discussion with the governor, that is to say he is the innovator of complementary food, he asked us to go and work on the formula after about five meetings with him before we finally came out with this.
“As Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, we believe in quality and we worked with NAFDAC, and just yesterday they gave us approval for branding and we are working towards getting NAFDAC number for this product as well as facility inspection. We are going to patent this product so that it can become the intellectual property of Gombe State. We are working with a lot more of others to see if we can produce Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). So by this time next year it will be RUTF we will be giving, we will try as much as possible to curtail malnutrition before it generates to Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM),”Maigari added.
Also speaking, Chairman Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Coalition, Alhassan Yahya, lauded the effort of the ministry in embarking on preventive measures geared towards curbing malnutrition in the state.
Yahya said, “This will prevent our children from becoming severely acute malnourished as a preventive measure. As you all are aware Gombe is one of the states with high rate of malnutrition but without doubt Infact Young Child Feeding (IYCF), is a way out. Already the state has a high level of children who are stunted or severely malnourished. The state has run out of RUTF for long, which is curative measure.”
On her part, Officer in charge of Jekadafari Primary Healthcare Centre, Aishatu Gaddam, while assuring that the facility would ensure proper handling of moderately malnourished children, urged mothers to patronize the facility for their wellbeing.
Gaddam added that the facility was built to reduce the perceived burden on the secondary, and tertiary facilities in the metropolis.
Also, Hakimi of Doma, Alh. Abdullahi Maikano, lauded the effort of the government in approving the production of the food, adding that his community would utilize the product effectively to the wellbeing.
