UNICEF to scale up nutrition programme in Gombe State LGs

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will scale up its nutrition programme in Gombe State local governments, its Nutrition Programme Consultant, Mrs Olufummilayo Adebambo, said.

Adebambo told our reporter in Gombe on Friday that
the programme, started in 2009 in Gombe, Dukku and Nafada, would now be
scaled up to Kaltungo.

She said “we will scale up to Kaltungo, based on data we got from Maternal Neonatal Child Health week in January 2017; the number of malnourished children is also high in Kaltungo.”

The consultant added that the programme would begin in April in Kaltungo, following the success recorded in the three areas where the programme first started.

She explained that UNICEF planned to teach communities how to prepare Infant and York Child Feeding (IYCF) with the available foods in their communities.

“We will teach breast feeding mothers how to use available foods in their communities to prepare complementary feeding for babies who are seven months, after the six months exclusive breast feeding encouraged by UNICEF.”

She said with the introduction of IYCF, it would combat malnutrition in Gombe State because it would be cheaper and available.