From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
About 2.5 million Kaduna state residents have been targeted to be provided with basic package of nutrition services and adolescent health services at community level under the World Bank-supported Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project, the Project Coordinator, Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris said on Tuesday.
Muhammad-Idris who said this at the end of the quarterly stakeholders meeting of the ANRiN project added that the services would be provided by two non-state actors which are eHealth Africa and Society for Family Health (SFH).
She reminded the attendees that ANRiN, a five-year World Bank-supported project was designed to increase the utilisation of quality, cost-effective nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and children under five years.
According to her, the objective was to reduce chronic malnutrition, maternal and child mortality rates and in the long run, increase school completion, performance and improve labour force productivity.
She said that the two NSAs were contracted in 2021 to deliver the services to the target groups at the community level, adding that so far, the project has reached 895,724 in 2021.
“Considering the outstanding performance of the two NSAs in 2021, I am confident that they will meet their targets which are expected to commence by June. We are happy with their performance so far. What we desire to see is for them to sustain the efforts and do better,” she said.
Project Director, eHealth Africa ANRiN Project, Dr Aminu Abubakar promised that eHealth would reach 556,749 beneficiaries in 12 local government areas between June 2022 and June 2023 saying the providers were being sourced from the communities where services were provided to strengthen acceptability and community ownership.
He said “We have employed two visually inspired persons who are providing services in their communities, and they are doing very well. We plan to recruit 24 more, two each from our 12 local government coverage areas.
“Out of the 556,74 targets, 104,187 pregnant and lactating women would be counselled on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, and provided deworming tablets to 138,502 children 12 to 59 months.
“131,036 children from six to 59 months would be provided with Vitamin A supplementation, while 51,805 children and their mothers would be provided with Zinc/ORS for diarrhoea”.
The project director also said that micronutrient powder would be provided to 53,473 children, six to 23 months with counselling and IFA supplement tablets with counselling to 32,640 pregnant women.
“Malaria drugs will also be provided to 29,737 pregnant women and modern contraceptive services with counselling to 15,369 women and adolescent girls,” Abubakar said.
On his part, Project Director, SFH ANRiN Project Ibrahim Mohammed said that SFH had a target of providing services to 1.92 million beneficiaries in 13 local government areas.
Mohammed said that of the 1.92 million targets, 360,784 pregnant and lactating women would be counselled on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, while deworming tablets would be provided to 481,755 children.
He said that 455,786 children would receive Vitamin A supplementation and 180,194 children would receive Zinc/ORS for diarrhoea ea, while their mothers counselled.
“Also, 185,839 will be provided with micronutrient powder six to 23 months with counselling, while 113,024 pregnant women will receive IFA supplement tablets with counselling.
“Malaria drugs will also be provided to 102,978 pregnant women while contraceptive services will be provided to 39,548 women and adolescents,” he said.
