More than 209,000 women and 202,000 children under five years have received nutrition services from the Accelerating Nutrition in Nigeria (ANRiN) project being implemented by the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) in nine local government areas in Kano state.
ANRiN project director, Dr. Ishaya Madaki, who stated this Tuesday, said the project is improving the nutritional status of pregnant women through provision of iron, folic acid tablets and intermittent malaria prophylaxis.
“IHVN is also providing zinc-fortified ORS for the management of diarrhea in children 6-59 months of age. Our work is also aimed at improving vitamin A supplementation and routine deworming of children under five years. We adopted approaches such as bi-monthly communication outreaches, town hall meetings, radio jingles, and a men’s forum to sensitise men about actively supporting their wives to access and utilise the basic nutrition services,” he said.
The project director states that “in some communities, the women want to access care but their husbands tend to stop them because they do not know about the services that we offer.
“We have decided to sensitise them and are sure that with this, more women and children will benefit.”
He added that the project has more than 220 community volunteers combing Bunkure, Dala, Fagge, Gwale, Kano Municipal, Kumbotso, Nasarawa Tarauni and Wudil local government areas in Kano state to provide nutrition services.
