Dowa communities encouraged to prepare nutritious food

 Feed the Children has urged Dowa communities to prepare nutritious food from their farm produce .

Feed the Children Central Region manager Mark Liwonde said this on Friday at Nkhamanga ground in Traditional Authority Mponela in Dowa during the launch of the district’s nutrition week .“Unfortunately, most households do not know how to prepare nutritious food,” he said.

Liwonde said the district produces a lot of food but most of it is sold by the communities, a development that has led to increased cases of malnutrition.

“Feed the Children has partnered with other organisations such as World Vision Malawi to create awareness at household level to reverse malnutrition cases in the district,” he said. According to United Nations Children Fund’s statistics for 2018, Ntchisi registered 39 percent in malnutrition.

“So, we want people to change their mindset and start using locally-produced food at household level to prepare nutritious food,” he said.Ntchisi principal nutrition HIV and Aids officer Lisungu Kamkondo said she was happy they are making headway in reversing malnutrition.

“We introduced a number of programmes that seek to create awareness in communities on what nutritious food constitutes,” she said.

Dowa District Council chairperson Martin Luka commended efforts by different organisations in fighting malnutrition.

“As a district, we would like to applaud various interventions that non-governmental organisations are doing in the district,” he said.