The International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH) has commenced an empowerment programme for 60 women with children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Executive Director of ISMPH, Moji Makanjuola, said the programme targets mothers from low-income households in vulnerable communities, uneducated/unemployed/single rural dwelling mothers and mothers living with disability and struggling to provide care for their children.
Beneficiaries were drawn from Kwali and Bwari Area councils of the FCT.
She said the empowerment of the women would in turn improve nutrition of pre-school children in the vulnerable communities.
She said the number of children suffering SAM across the country was alarming, adding that there was need to change the narrative.
Speaking during a training programme on severe acute malnutrition for journalists in the FCT, Makanjuola said the programme which is funded by the European Union – Agents for Citizen Driven Transformation (EU-ACT) is implemented by empowering vulnerable mothers with improved nutritional knowledge and access to information on SAM.
While enjoining the media to debunk misconceptions about nutrition in children, she said they should also produce stories that proffer solutions to the burden of malnutrition in the country.
She said the project would also economically empower beneficiaries through the creation of a value chain around waste. “Disadvantaged mothers of severely malnourished children will be equipped to create sustainable businesses through the generation of marketable products from waste items,” she added.
She said activities of the programme are: livelihood empowerment programmes for mothers and girls for improved economic well-being, supporting a media group for child health/nutrition, empowering the media for accurate reportage of issues of nutrition in Nigeria, using waste to wealth methods for production of essential oils from local plants among others
Solomon Dogo said between 2018-2021, ISMPH addressed the issue of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in six states.
He said the media is critical in the campaign to set agenda for sustainable empowerment of vulnerable women and to utilize the media’s influence to set the issue of malnutrition on the front burner of engagements in the build up to the 2023 general elections.
