By Rudo Nditani and Haneeph Maulana
Machinga, Mana: Director of Health and Social Services for Machinga District Dr Arnold Kapachika has commended local leaders for taking a major role in the fight against malnutrition which is rampant in the district.
Kapachika was speaking on Tuesday at Mauwa Primary School ground in the area of Sub-T/A Mizinga during a Nutrition Learning Forum which was organized by GOAL Malawi under the Nutrition Impact Positive Practice (NIPP) project and Mild Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) family learning.
Kapachika said he was convinced with the effort played by local leaders which has helped to reduce malnutrition cases in the district.
“Through the project it has enabled local leaders to ensure that expectant women, breastfeeding mothers and under-five children have access to six food groups to fight malnutrition,” he said.
Kapachika added that he was convinced with the way the project was being implemented by involving men in its activities which are influencing every household to establish backyard vegetable gardens and promoting livestock production.
Principle Nutrition Officer for Machinga Autile Sanyika hailed the program saying it has helped in family decision making on how to have balanced diet throughout a year which will help to build their health and that of their children.
Sanyika said that the program came to rescue the district council amid Covid-19 which affected the Muac distribution.
“The pandemic affected us a lot. Thanks Goal Malawi for giving us a hand,” said Sanyika.
She therefore urged the communities to keep on taking the locally-available nutritious food especially among mothers and under-five children.
Goal Malawi Food and Nutrition Coordinator, Dorica Chibota highlighted the object of the project which is creating awareness on Nutrition Impact Positive Practice (NIPP) and Mild Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) to the community and encouraged them to adopt the pillars of the intervention.
“Most of the households that are under NIPP and MUAC have adopted the intervention and they have been able to establish the backyard vegetable gardens, livestock production and sanitation has improved within the communities that we are targeting,” she said.
Sub-T/A Mizinga commended the project saying it has changed the mindset of people in his area which has resulted into improvement of child growth and small number of cases of malnutrition.
Goal Malawi is implementing NIPP and MUAC project in the area of Traditional Authority Mchinguza in Machinga District under Waterloof Foundation and Irish Aid.