Masari’s Wife Donates Therapeutic Food to Malnourished Children in Katsina

By Francis Sardauna

Looking for ways to assist malnourished children in Katsina State, the wife of the state governor, Dr. Zakiyya Aminu Masari, has donated 130 bags of locally made Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to mothers and caregivers of children under five years to tackle malnutrition in the state.

Speaking during the donation in Katsayal community, Sandamu Local Government Area of the state, Mrs Masari said the beneficiaries were carefully selected by the health department of the local government.

She explained that the production of the food supplements were sponsored by her pet project, “Women, Youth and Children Improvement Initiative”, in order to assuage the hardship bedevilling malnourished children across Daura senatorial zone of the state.

While calling on the benefiting mothers and the caregivers to use the food items judiciously, she noted that the food supplements were meant for children suffering from mild and moderate malnutrition in the zone.

She highlighted some of the activities she executed under her pet project to include, the distribution of drugs to sickle cell patients across the state, distribution of nutritional food items and cash to vulnerable families, pregnant women and mothers of under five children, amongst others.

She said: “We gathered here today (Thursday) to witness another laudable achievements of this project. Over 130 bags of five kilogrammes of Garin Lafiya is distributed to selected mothers and caregivers of under five children with mild and moderate malnutrition in this community.”

In his remarks, the state Commissioner for Health, Yakubu Nuhu Danja, said the state has a malnutrition prevalence of over 50 per cent, which he said, is above the national average.

He said the state government had supported Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) centres with over N3.5 million for the 14 benefiting local government areas in an effort to reduce the effect of malnutrition in the state.

He added that the state government also signed an agreement with the World Bank to come up with an intervention of N9.3 billion for a project called Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria Project (ANRiN).