To complement and boost government’s efforts in tackling malnutrition in the country, the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) has initiated processes to reach and properly feed one million children across the country, commencing immediately.
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) malnutrition is a direct or underlying cause of 45 per cent of all deaths of under-five children of which Nigeria had the second highest burden of stunted children in the world, with a national prevalence rate of 37 per cent of children under five.
The UN agency in a statement on its website also noted that an estimated 2 million childreninNigeriasufferedfromsevere acute malnutrition (SAM) just as only two of every 10 children affected was currently reached with treatment. It added that seven percent of women of childbearing age also suffer from acute malnutrition, and that the first 1,000 days of a child’s life offer a unique window of opportunity for preventing under nutrition and its consequences.
However, to reverse negative trend, Chairman of Aliko Dangote Foundation and Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote said “we recognise nutrition as a cross-cutting issue which affects other critical development goals, that is why nutritionhasbecomeourcorefocus. “
We want to reach one million malnourished children in Nigeria and we know that for every dollar invested in nutrition, the nation as a whole will reap huge economic dividends…
In addition, we shall reach households of children with SAM and their communities that contribute the most to the SAM burden with food security, cash-based interventions and livelihoods support, engendered infant and young childfeeding, hygieneandcareseeking behaviours.”
