Seven out of every 10 children under 5 years of age according to Dr. Brenda Ariba Zarhari Abu are anemic leading to a variety of disadvantages in children within that age gap.
Anemia impairs a child’s mental, physical, and social development and it causes negative behavioral and cognitive effects resulting in poor school performance and work capacity in later years.
Dr. Zarhari Abu, Assistant Professor at the Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition at Rochester Institute of Technology revealed this and indicated that everyone has a role to play in providing a nourished future for children.
She was speaking at the launch of the 14th Annual Health Week Celebration of the University of Cape Coast Medical Students’ Association, held at Twifo Hemang in the Central Region.
The celebration was on the theme “A nourished future, giving the malnourished child a chance”.
Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District is one of the districts with the highest cases of micronutrient deficiency cases in the Central Region.
She, therefore, urged nursing mothers to ensure that their children are fed with fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily basis through breastfeeding.
“We encourage mothers to focus on breastfeeding, this will help improve the child’s nutrition from the first thousand (1000) days of life. We also encourage mothers to include fruits and vegetables as well as meat, fish, and other protein sources like fish powder, especially in the food of children.”
On his part, the District Chief Executive officer for Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira, Mr. Kennedy Sarpong pledged to budget for activities aimed at handling malnutrition in the district.
He emphasized that “we are mandated to ensure the socio-economic development of the district meaning that we are supposed to design and implement social inventions among others to improve the welfare of the citizens… ”
The Health Week Celebration is an annual event held by the University of Cape Coast Medical Students’ Association to contribute their quota to solving existing healthcare needs in society.
As part of the event, the association donated some items to the Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District Health Directorate.
The items include Stadiometer, Infantometer, Electronic baby scale, Food models, MUAC tapes, Head circumference tapes, and Ready to use Therapeutics foods (RUTF).\
Present at the ceremony was also the MP for the area, who doubles as Deputy Minister of employment and labour relations, Charles Wireko- Brobbey.
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Source: Elikem Larweh/ATLFMNEWS
