The Nigerian Red Cross Society has declared that, as part of its operations, it complements the fight against malnutrition in children U-5 in nine states in northern Nigeria.
The dissemination was made by the national president of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Prince Oluyemisi Adetayo Adeaga during the opening of an emergency appeal of 2-day malnutrition, the start meeting with the northeast and central-norte states, held in Bauchi on Friday.
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Represented by the National Disaster Advisor, Dr. Babale Adamu said that: “When you talk about malnutrition, it is not very good, nothing good per se. So, we are talking about food insecurity, something devastating, a catastropia, which can affect all its food in their own community. When saying, we are just saying to the antithetic people.”
“What will be in our own domain? We cannot say. This is a great malignancy that can happen. And if you look at it, you can see that there is an imminent drought. An imminent. Almost all parts of Nigeria have this tendency to drought.
“We are working. But then, we have not yet used all these names, antithetical assumptions. And when you look among you, you can see that we have not invited government officials. Therefore, it is the key. It is the key that we understand that we cannot work alone. We are directing a government of Nigeria. So that is the advice we decide to do now.
“When we include public government representatives, why? We want you to do the right thing for this country. We are only increasing each other. Therefore, it is important that they are with us. Seeing what they have achieved, the design, through publications.
“Then, if you go to a report practice, I urge you to take them, work with them and make sure that this has been done in accordance with the established procedures, the established standards.
“And for the sake of this test, he urges him, with his votes. We want everyone to agree. If there is any deviation of what we think we can do, please return that to normal so that we can announce to the people who have always suffered. We are here as complementary, nothing more.
“So, we are trying to have a small fraction of what the government usually does. So, so we now have this thing, and with its complete collaboration, the complete efforts to be able to achieve this goal. I do not know if I want to add my path or not.
“I think some people have avoided it. I can tell you the truth, they are nutritious. They are all you know. So, how do you want to go? If they have this, are you going back more than an hour for prevention? Or how do you want to defend this now?”
In his comments, Dr. Aminu Abdullahi, interim director of the Department of Health and Care, said that “malnutrition is an emergency in Nigeria. According to that, we launch help to the International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent to see how we can support the Government. As you are aware, Nigeria Red Cross Society is just a government assistant.”
Added; “So, whatever we do, is that we are only trying to see how we can support the government. So, according to that, we can obtain some funds so we will try to see how we can contribute to our quota in nine states, which are the base states.”
According to him, the base states are Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, while Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, Benue and the Taraba states were added because they also have problems that can lead to a malnutrition situation.
“And we are starting with the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe because, last year, we had a smaller project with this also with respect to malnutrition.
“So, what we are going to do is that, after this workshop, the workshop is mainly to bring together all interested parties so that everyone understands the story, to see how we can contribute to effectively achieve the objectives of this workshop, of this project.
“Then, in general, we have what we call Mothers' Club, which is a tool that we use to establish communities where we are going to work. Teach local women about how they can use available resources locally in terms of food content, in terms of what they grow there, and practices to continue training each other to see how they communicate.
“And otherwise, we usually train them how they can be selected to detect malnutrition, and be examined if what should be used locally to see if they have control should be used.
“If it is very serious, how they can send these children to the health centers. And after having been discharged, to see how they can return them back to society. Because, if someone can be malnourished this year, they can treat it. And if it is not taken into account next year, it will still be bad.
“If you did not treat caretakers, what cause malnutrition? How can they mitigate and avoid it? That's why we used to train those of the community and call them other schools so that they are there in the community, at home, so that they can continue monitoring.
“Then, part of the treatment that I have seen other donors, have gathered a lot in terms of root treatment. But if it continues to try without mitigating the root cause, it will continue to have a greater turnover, year after year.
“So, that is why we are now looking to see it, perhaps we have to step back to see what are the fundamental causes in the communities. How can the community take possession of those challenges and meet us to see how they can have a better solution so that when you have prevented it?
“And we are also looking at the treatment, but on a smaller scale, for places where if we evaluate the new treatment we are trying, that is why we have other partners, they will say, in the location in such a way that they will work, they will have their installation, they have the ability to treat, then we will refer them to those facilities.”
Representatives of the States, in their various messages of goodwill, praised the Society of the Red Cross of Nigeria for taking the initiative to join the fight against malnutrition in children U-5.
They secured various ways that will collaborate in efforts to mitigate acute malnutrition problems..