Pulse.ng : ANRiN Project Contributes To Recovery Of 30,000 Malnorished Children In Kaduna

By Sani Idris

The Coordinator of Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria Project (ANRiN) in Kaduna, Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris, has said that they contributed to the recovery of about 30,000 malnorished children in the state through their various interventions.

Muhammad-Idris who said this at a one-day stakeholders’ debriefing workshop on Tuesday in Zaria, Kaduna, stated that they contributed to Kaduna state in management of the children who were severely acute malnorished.

She equally said that ANRiN project, which is largely a preventive intervention against the onset of malnutrition, has in the past three years reached out to over four million beneficiaries comprising of children, lactating mothers, pregnant women and adolescent girls.

As the ANRiN project in Kaduna ends by end of the year, Muhammad-Idris hoped that all the good work, learning model, key successes and approaches that were used in delivering the project would be sustained and the expected practices are continued across the state.

She also hoped that the knowledge, awareness created and the information that were provided would be put to use.

“We believe alot of efforts and investments have been made. In doing that, we expect the institutions whose capacity has been built and personnel who were trained especially community service providers and health workers delivering the services to continue even after exit of the project.

“We expect to see better food choices and maternal infact and young child nutrition practices being upheld in homes and also families and individual imbibing better health seeking behavior in terms of nutrition and other health services

“We expect to see improvement in the health services being provided at the facility level. This is why we partnered the State Primary Health Care Board so as to strengthen our family health care facilities to deliver the services”,she said

The coordinator stressed that everyone, including families, communities, and any stakeholder that has benefited from the project has a role to play in sustaining the efforts made by the ANRiN project.

She therefore, said it is expected of every stakeholder especially those at community level play their respective roles.

She pointed out that faith based leaders had been supportive in using the scripture in passing information on how families should maintain healthy and nutrition lifestyle.

She added that they were poised in seeing that Kaduna state has no single case of malnorished child or mother.

“It is doable, and this we aspire to see. At the end, we want to do away with chronic malnutrition which is exemplified by stunting and micro nutrients deficiencies,”she said.

Also, speaking to newsmen at the sideline of the event, the Commissioner of the Kaduna state Planning and Budget Commission (PBC), Mukthar Ahmed, restated the commission’s committment to continue coordinating all the nutrition stakeholders and MDAs.

Ahmed, represented by Hajiya Aisha Muhammad, the Director, Development Aid Coordination of the PBC, said the State Committee on Food and Nutrition (SCFN), which is domiciled at the PBC, cannot afford to neglect the giant contributions made by ANRiN project in the state.

He said thanked them for their support, while pledging to sustain their legasies for betterment nutrition indices in the state.

Earlier, Hajiya Hauwa Usman, the Nutrition Specialist for ANRiN project in Kaduna, said the workshop was aimed at presenting the progress they have made and some of the achievements they recorded in implementing the project in the state.

She equally said it was to critically discuss sustainability plans as the ANRiN project comes to end in the state by end of the year.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that stakeholders at the workshop included Society for Family Health, the State Primary Health Care Board, National Orientation Agency and nutrition desk officers from MDAs.

Others were Kaduna Agriculture Development Agency, Kaduna Emergency Nutrition Action Plan (KADENAP), Ministry of Local Government, among others.(NAN)