Women and men join forces to fight child malnutrition in northwest Nigeria

Kadawawa, Jigawa State, 19 March 2018 – Hurera Saadu has seen many of her community’s children suffer from malnutrition, some of them dying as a result. The 33 year-old feels fortunate that she didn’t lose any of her own. She fed five of her babies with water as well as breast milk during the first six months of their lives, but only because she didn’t know any better.

Now, as leader of a support group of women volunteers trained by UNICEF in infant and young child feeding (IYCF), Hurera works tirelessly to ensure Kadawawa doesn’t lose no more.

“I didn’t know I should have given them only breast milk at that age,” she explains with regret etched into her voice. “I only learnt that later at a mothers’ support group.”

She and her colleagues devote hours of their time going house to house and running fortnightly meetings in their community to champion best IYCF practices. They have made a massive impact on Kadawawa’s families, and undoubtedly saved lives.

“We have succeeded - in our community we don’t often see malnourished children,” Hurera reports proudly, pointing to a sturdy toddler who was exclusively breastfed for the first six months of his life, adding, “As you can see - our children are healthy!”

For the seven-strong team of volunteers, every social occasion as a fresh opportunity to educate other mothers. Weddings, naming ceremonies and even burials offer the women a platform to advocate for a wide variety of healthy practices for all the family, including ante-natal care and good hygiene habits.

Nigeria’s malnutrition levels are high with an estimated 2.5 million children categorised as suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). 17.5 per cent of children aged 6-23 months are fed the minimum acceptable diet (NNHS, 2014).

In 2011, to tackle the malnutrition levels found at Kadawawa, the government set up an out-patient treatment clinic, with the support of UNICEF and the Children Investments Fund Foundation (CIFF). It was from Kadawawa Primary Health Care centre that the IYCF mothers support groups were set up and trained by State Government in collaboration with UNICEF.

Shehu Mohammad, a health worker and officer-in-charge at the clinic, has monitored the positive impact from the volunteers’ work himself.

But it is not only Kadawawa’s women who have become agents of change, the men also joined the women in this success. Even the local Imam has been persuaded to use his preaching to help spread valuable messages about IYCF.

Mohammed Madaki Yau joined the men’s IYCF support group after seeing the devastating effects of malnutrition on his own child. The 45-year-old is now the group’s secretary and a committed advocate of exclusive breastfeeding and ante-natal care for women.

“We visit men in their homes in all the four wards of Kadawawa community to tell them to encourage their wives to practice exclusive breastfeeding,” Mohammed explains. “The men listen to us because children who are exclusively breastfed scarcely fall sick and are happy. Money spent on medical bills is also saved as a result.

“At the mosque, our Imam preaches on it and after closing prayers, and we talk to the men and tell them to allow their wives to attend ante-natal clinic and participate in the mothers’ support group meetings which are held every two weeks.”

“The huge success of the IYCF programme in Kadawawa would not have been possible without the wives and their husbands joining forces,” says Nafisa Kawu, vice-chairperson of the mothers’ support group.

“Our husbands support us in various ways. They provide transport money for their wives to attend the mothers’ support group meetings where various topics such as exclusive breastfeeding are discussed. Most husbands also provide nutritious food such as beans, water melon, fish and vegetables, for cooking demonstration, especially when their wives are pregnant,” the 34-year-old explains.

Philomena Irene, UNICEF’s nutrition specialists, emphasises the key role that good nutrition plays in laying the best foundation for a child’s development.

“Unless children have the right nutrients, access to care and health services within the first 1,000 days of life, a child’s brain and body are unable to develop properly. Unlike hunger, these effects are largely invisible and essentially irreversible.”

To date, the DFID- has supported IYCF programme to reach more than 71,000 pregnant and lactating women with IYCF counseling through support group meetings in three local government areas of Jigawa state.