Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has said that government is working with foreign and local partners in the health sector to improve the quality of diet of vulnerable children across the country.
Through a special intervention currently being mounted in 20 high risk states, the ministry said it hopes to facilitate the administering of Small Quantity, Lipid based Nutrient Supplements (SQ-LNS) to as many as 300,000 children facing threat of malnutrition in various communities.
Small quantity, Lipid based Nutrient Supplements (SQ-LNS) is a fortified lipid-based paste/spread that is intended to complement the diet of children aged 6-23 months with essential nutrients.
it contributes to preventing micronutrient deficiencies and stunting.
SQ-LNS for children contains, in addition to the protein and lipid macronutrients, 24 micronutrients (13 vitamins and 11 minerals) including the macro-minerals calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium.
Director of Nutrition Information System, Dr. Lekan Olubajo who spoke in an interview with THISDAY said the capacity training was meant to protect children, mostly under five years of age from malnourishment.
On why this supplement is important, he said: “that Malnutrition and Wasting is about 40 percent right now in the country. We have under five children who are malnourished and the malnutrition is becoming one of the public health challenges in Nigeria.
According to Olubajo, government is trying to see how this malnutrition could be addressed, especially between children six months to 23 months of age.
According to him, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (FMoHSW) in collaboration with UNICEF, Evidence Action and other relevant stakeholders has developed SQ-LNS training manual to ensure standardization of training of the health care practitioners across the country.
He explained the first stage of the train the trainers is being carried out at the national level, adding there will be a state level training, a facility level training where the workers will be trained to be able to provide these commodities to the children.
“So, we are doing a training of trainers on that is a commodity to address the malnutrition, part of malnutrition in Nigeria.
“We have 70 persons here representing both partners and we have 20 states being represented.
“We have two people from each of these states and each of these states will go back and cascade the training to the local communities,” he said
He said the programme has been carefully designed to build the capacity of all health workers involved in Micronutrient Deficiencies Control in Nigeria both in facility and community.
“This will significantly contribute to the reduction of micronutrient deficiencies among children 6-23 months and overall reduction of anaemia and high mortality in the country,” Olubajo said.
Country Director of Evidence Action, one of the implementing partners, Mr. Tope Ogunbi, said the distribution of SQNLS is a new intervention, adding that health workers have not yet been trained in most of the states on how to administer it.
“So, the reason why we’re here on Monday is to train a pool of national trainers who are drawn from the Ministry of Health, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and other agencies, ministries and parastatals at the national level,” he said.
Onyebuchi Ezigbo
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