UNICEF partners UK to save children with food and hygiene
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Children in Nigeria’s North East buffeted by terrorists are to receive early aid for two years from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the British Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The Multisectoral Integrated Nutrition Action (MINA), as the project is called, will be implemented by UNICEF and other partners in 24 Councils in Borno and Yobe until March 2025.
UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, explained in a statement issued in Abuja the humanitarian intervention offers integrated food, nutrition sanitation, and protection services to empower more than 300,000 mothers and caregivers.
He said the project will also
- Enhance dietary practices and home-based malnutrition screening skills.
- Provide high impact lifesaving nutrition interventions (such as early identification and referral of acute malnutrition cases for treatment), and micronutrients supplementation to prevent infections among children.
- Improve the survival of children affected by conflict with approximately 1 in 4 children aged 12-23 months not vaccinated.
The North East has one of the highest numbers of unvaccinated children in Nigeria, according to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey and National Immunization Coverage Survey (MICS-NICS 2021).
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Adopting hygienic practices
Data from the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: National Outcome Routine Mapping (WASH NORM 2021) shows 4 per cent of the population of Borno and 2 per cent of Yobe have access to safely managed drinking water.
It also shows up to 1.1 million people across the region still practise open defecation, a risk factor for malnutrition and stunting in children.
“The first 1,000 days of life of a child is an unmatched window of opportunity. UNICEF is grateful for the support of the FCDO to invest early in the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in the world,” Munduate said, per Vanguard reporting.
“It is heartwarming that through the capacity building and empowerment approach of this project, thousands of children will benefit from the intervention in the long term.
“The project leverages a bouquet of essential services and community structures to provide integrated essential services for children, including birth registration and immunisation services, nutrition counselling, cash transfer support, establishment of vegetable gardens, market-based sanitation and hygiene interventions, mothers’ groups, nutrition mobilisers and WASH Committees.
“Critically, the highly successful mother-led Mid-Upper Arm Circumference programme is being expanded while roving midwives will be deployed to hard-to-reach areas to improve the nutrition status and overall wellbeing of the most disadvantaged children.”
