Scale up nutrition fight, duty-bearers told

Department of Nutrition, HIV and Aids director of nutrition Felix Pensulo Phiri has urged Blantyre District Nutrition Coordinating Committee members to scale up their efforts to improve nutrition status among under-five children in the district.

His call follows the launch of a five-year K3 billion Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Programme targeting zero to five-year old children in the district’s eight traditional authorities.

Speaking on Tuesday in Mulanje during the training of the officers, Phiri called for a hardworking spirit for the project to succeed.

“Nutrition is important for the country’s development,” he said.

Blantyre District principal health HIV and Aids officer Pearson Mphangwe pledged to ensure smooth service delivery.

“Blantyre’s stunting prevalence rate is at 33.2. We are trying our best to improve the situation in the district,” he said.

One of the participants, Eness Kaunda, a nurse at Chileka Health Centre, said she learned how to help children with malnutrition cases.

Government is implementing the programme with funding from German Government under KFW programme with technical support from Unicef.