Stakeholders in the Northern Region have been asked to do more to address the high incidence of malnutrition in the area.
This advice was given by the Regional Nutrition Officer, Hajia Azara Amadu, who said the high incidence of malnutrition and stunted growth in the region does not augur well for the human development of residents.
The Northern Region continues to record high levels of malnutrition and stunted growth among children.
Currently, 33.1 percent of children under five are stunted.
The high incidence of malnutrition contrasts sharply with the high number of NGOs in the region undertaking interventions to address malnutrition.
Health experts believe, the lack of coordination among these NGOs is negatively impacting their efforts in the area.
Hajia Azara Amadu told Citi News: “Among all the regions we are having the majority of NGOs who supporting us buy then we are having the high incidence of malnutrition then you ask what are we not doing right. So this call for collaboration of NGOs so that we will all have a common platform to talk about what we are doing and which communities to avoid duplication.”
Meanwhile, the Savelugu Municipal Director of Health, Denisia Agong has appealed to pregnant women in the area to take their nutrition seriously.
“From our annual report, we realised that we have up to 66 percent of anaemia among pregnant women at 36 weeks. This is so alarming because from 36 weeks pregnant women are expected to give birth and so if at that stage, you don’t have adequate blood, to carry you through labour, you can be sure that anything can happen.”
She added, “There is no delivery that there won’t be bleeding and most of them deliver in the house, if you start bleeding, what will happen, That will contribute to high maternal mortality rate in the municipality, we have recorded so far 4 maternal deaths since the beginning of 2019”
She was speaking on the sideline of stakeholder engagement to present findings of two radio series project which was aimed at promoting nutrition, agricultural practices and maternal health issues in Savelugu Municipality and Saboba District, this was led by Centre for Science and Health Communication.
Dr Mahama Saaka a lecturer at UDS indicated that the project was also to determine the extent to which radio can reach people and change behaviour.
‘One key indicator that was actually improve was dietary diversity. This is in a sense that we need to eat variety of food in order to be able to get the nutrient needed for our growth. We were able to demonstrate that if you look at the intervention district compared with the comparism district, there was an improvement in terms of practices with regards to feeding children with the necessary food.”
It was organised in partnership with the Texas A&M University School of Public Health in the United States, University for Development Studies, Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Tamale Community Health Nurses Training College.
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By: Diana Ngon | citinewsroom.com |Ghana
