The Upper East regional Minister Albert Abongo has noted that Stunting or chronic under-nutrition is a serious developmental challenge that affects many children in Ghana especially in Northern Ghana.
The Minister made the revelation at a Launch of an advocacy video documentary on nutrition which is specifically on stunting.
The advocacy video documentary on stunting features community leaders and health authorities on how to promote nutrition in Northern Ghana. The documentary which was produced by SPRING GHANA in Collaboration with Ghana Health Services (GHS) is to stimulate discussion among leaders and call them together to initiate action within their communities towards addressing the prevalence of stunting and Anemia in Northern Ghana.
According the Minister, “It is estimated that 1 out of 3 children is stunted in Northern Ghana and this means that if you see three children, one of them has not grown well due to inadequate nutrient intake within the first 1000 days of life and this really affect the child’s ability to grow normally both physically and mentally.”
The Upper East Regional Health Director Dr. Kofi Issah during, there are nearly 800 million chronically undernourished people in the world with approximately 159 million children under 5 years of age stunted and 50 million wasted. According to him, there are also about 2 billion people who suffer from micronutrient deficiencies due to high malnutrition rate. He advised household members and caregivers to practice appropriate infant and child feeding.
The Deputy Chief Party of SPRING GHANA Mr. Baba jide, said the Strengthening Partnerships Results and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING) project is a global project in 9 countries with a mandate of strengthening global and country efforts to scale up high impact nutrition practices, prevent stunting and anemia.
He added that the SPRING Ghana technical support ensures that quality nutrition programs are taken to scale to strengthen capacity to eliminate under nutrition by employing multi-sectorial programs with a strong social and behavior change communication approach at all levels. However, he said the advocacy video documentary on nutrition which was produced by SPRING Ghana is translated in different languages to enable community members to understand the message better.
By: Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen | A1RADIOONLINE.com | GHANA
