Mrs Dabis Ike
‘Our capacity was built on strengthening systems for maternal, infant, and young child nutrition (MIYCN) in social and behaviour change, policy advocacy’
By Ahmed Ahmed
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Bauchi State have expressed their commitment to improve the quality of child feeding and maternal nutrition through interventions in the state.
Mrs Dabis Ike, the Ag executive director of the Bauchi-based FACE-PaM disclosed at the weekend that the CSOs, with the support of an NGO, Alive & Thrive, were working to strengthen the system in the state.
She further disclosed that they were working to ensure adequate nourishment and care for pregnant women by optimal feeding from birth to a child’s second birthday.
Her words: “Our capacity was built on strengthening systems for maternal, infant, and young child nutrition (MIYCN) in social and behaviour change, policy advocacy.
“We learned strategic use of data thoughtfully for the sustainable scale-up of policies and programmes that improve MIYCN in the state.”
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Alao, Mr Justin Nathaniel, the project officer, Women Empowerment Initiative of Nigeria (WEIN), explained that they embarked on a project promoting positive practices in communities through outreach by community volunteers.
“By building the capacity of health providers to use data more effectively that will lead to better monitoring of service provision.
“That will also provide improvement efforts that address key gaps in the delivery of these critical MIYCN services in the communities of the state,” he said.
Another CSO, Mr Ibifumilola Paul of the Ace -Hi in Bauchi said that they had witnessed significant improvements in the quality of child feeding and maternal nutrition practices in the state.
He called on the government and other employers of labour to implement six months maternity leave and make the workplace conducive to enable mothers practice exclusive breastfeeding for their babies.
“If there is a creche in the place of work or attached to the place of work or a breastfeeding place at a place of work, mothers can keep their child there.
“But when the child is so far away, you don’t know what is happening, the mother’s heart would not be at rest, she would be tense.
“That is why our emphasis on breast milk in the first six months of life contains all the necessary nutrients in quantity and quality that a child requires at this stage of life,” he said.
Paul however commended the Thrive and Alive organisation for complementing the state government on improving MIYCN in six local communities of the state.
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