By Muhammad Jamil Abubakar
To reduce malnutrition among infants and improve child survival, the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF is implementing complementary feeding project in three Local Government Areas in Gombe State.
Kaltungo is one of the local governments where the complementary feeding project is taking place.
Speaking to journalists during a field trip to Kaltungo Local Government where women are taught how to make complementary foods for infants, the Local Government Facilitator Ladi Abdullahi said the complementary foods are made from local home-grown foods which are easy to access and cost-effective.
She said most of the nutritious foods are sourced locally within their community such as orange-fleshed potatoes, spinach, sorghum, and moringa leaves and introducing vitamin A into it.
Ladi Abdullahi said the potato vines are distributed to families within the community for planting at their backyard for easy cultivation, thereby giving families essay access to the nutrients dense foods.
Also speaking to Radio Nigeria, Naomi Joseph a staff at the Kalorgu Primary Health Clinic, who train mothers and caregivers on how to process such foods commended UNICEF Bauchi Field Office for promoting exclusive breast feeding as well as the introduction of complementary foods.
She said their major challenges is accessing clean water for cultivating and processing the foods for healthy diet.
She called on the government and other stake holders to support UNICEF in its effort to reducing malnutrition among infants especially in the northern part of the country .
