District officials from the Northern Province concluded a three day training workshop to eliminate Malnutrition in Musanze district.
The workshop which started on Thursday and concluded on Saturday was sponsored by Netherland foreign affairs Ministry through SNV Voice of Change Partnership (V4CP) project and implemented by SUN Alliance Rwanda.
Northern Province Governor Jean-Marie Vianney Gatabazi also urged the district officials that eliminating malnutrition should be a culture within the families of Rwanda.
He reminded the district officials that the Giranka government project is meant to make sure that parents can have milk to feed their children in order to eliminate malnutrition.
Doctor Anita Asiimwe the Minister of State and a specialist in public health thanked SNV and SUN Alliance Rwanda urged participants to implement what they have learned from the workshop at the house hold levels.
“District community health workers should encourage mothers to breasfeed their children at an early age to eliminate malnutrition. He called for an awareness campaign to be carried to fight malnutrition.
She added, “This can be done through five pillars which are hygiene, health, vaccination, monitoring at sector level, family social protection and parental education,”
The district officials who attended the workshop, included heads of social protection, gender, nutritionist, health, agriculture at the district level from Gicumib, Gakenke, Musanze, Burera, Rulindo as well as those from district officials from Nyarugenge, Gasabo and Kicukiro.
The officials were trained that poverty, illiteracy and insufficient land for farming are among the factors linked to food insecurity, and are the most likely root causes of stunting, especially among rural people.
The Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) report in Rwanda found that levels of stunting among children aged under 5 dropped to 36.7 percent in 2015, down from 43 percent at the time of the last analysis in 2012.
Stunting, where a child is short for their age, is an indicator of chronic malnutrition and permanently affects brain development and health.
A new study conducted by the Rwandan Ministry of Agriculture and the World Food Programme (WFP) indicates that rates of chronic malnutrition in Rwanda have fallen significantly in the last three years, but still remain stubbornly high, especially in rural areas.
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