From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
The Ebonyi State government has received 1,000 cartons of Ready-to-use therapeutic food supplements to fight malnutrition among children in the.
Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), categorised as food for special purposes, is a nutrient-dense, energy-dense paste specifically formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months.
The 1,000 cartons of the supplements was donated to the state by an international organisation, Japiegho.
Team lead of the organisation in the state, Nneka Dikeocha, while addressing the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Moses Ekuma, during the donation, said the gesture was to assist the state to fight malnutrition among the children. She lauded the state for health policies and programmes which she said have improved the health status of the people.
Receiving the supplements, Ekuma said the donation meant a lot to the state government. He said the donation will complement the effort of the state government in the fight against malnutrition.
“When this government came in, we discovered that there were quite a number of children that were malnourished, and malnutrition has short and long term effects. And it is one of the priorities of this administration to eliminate malnutrition in Ebonyi State.
“So, this 1,000 of RUTF that Japiegho donated to us, today, will go a long way to take care of our children with malnutrition. The state government had earlier procured a large number of RUTF before and we know the cost to the state. So, this donation has saved a lot of cost to the state, and it is going to go a long way to take care of malnutrition in our children”, he said.
The commissioner assured that the supplements will be given to the children that deserve them. Head, Nutrition Department in the state Ministry of Health, Dr. Cyprian Ogbonna, disclosed that the state was not in good shape with malnutrition before the present administration came on board with the intervention of Japiegho.
He commended Governor Francis Nwifuru for releasing N150 million which was used with UNICEF counterpart fund to procure Small Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient supplements, which were given to healthy children before the donation of the 1,000 RUTF by Japiegho.
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