Communites hail nutrition project
Communities from Chafukira in Traditional Authority (T/A) Kanyenda in Nkhotakota have described malnutrition as a menace to development, pledging to remain united in the fight against it.
The communities said this on Tuesday when officials from Save the Children and Mangochi District Council visited their counterparts in Nkhotakota to appreciate what they are doing under the Support for Nutrition Improvement (Snic) project the two districts are implementing.
With financial support from World Bank through the Department of Nutrition HIV and Aids, Nkhotakota and Mangochi districts are implementing Snic project aimed at reducing stunting and anemia among children and maternal deaths.
Support for Service Delivery Integration (SSDI) is implementing the project in all six traditional authorities (T/As) in Nkhotakota while in Mangochi it is being implemented by Save the Children in 12 T/As.
Speaking during the visit, one of the community members from Chafukira Care Group, Ireen Zedi, said they are tired of being haunted by malnutrition.
She said: “Before this project started, communities were experiencing many challenges. A day hardly passed without witnessing deaths of pregnant mothers and babies during delivery.
“Sometimes if children were born they were stunted and this also resulted in many deaths. But the coming in of this project has curbed these problems.”
In their remarks, Nkhotakota district health office nutritionist, Ulunji Mezuwa, and Mangochi district aids coordinator, Ernest Kadzokoya, commended the project, saying it is transforming lives in their areas.n
