Wa West District Still Recording Under Child Malnutrition

The Poyetanga sub-district in the Wa West District of the Upper West Region is still recording high cases of acute malnutrition among children.

The communities in the sub-district, according to the Poyetanga Health Centre have already recorded twenty-five cases of what is termed as ‘severe acute malnutrition’ among children in the first half of the year as against thirty-nine for the whole of last year. The situation was blamed on poverty, limited food supply and Post-Harvest Losses PHL.

Speaking to Radio Ghana on the sidelines of a stakeholder meeting held to deliberate on issues of nutrition, a Policy Officer with the Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition, (GTLC), Emmanuel Wullingdool said Post-Harvest Losses have direct effect on food security which in turn affects the nutrition of community members especially children.

He explained that “they are strongly linked. Storage facilities for them to store their food produce is becoming a challenge to most communities in the Wa West District. It is mainly a farming community, so why they will have limited food is linked to post harvest losses. They would have enough, they could have enough, but a lot of it when not well preserved will be lost.”

“The community leaders mentioned that in time of harvest, they tend to consume so much of it [food produce] to the extent that between January and June, they have limited food supply.”

Severe acute malnutrition among children in the Poyetanga sub-district hit an all-time high in 2014 when seventy-cases were recorded. This number reduced to forty-five in 2015 and down to thirty-nine in 2017. With 25 recorded in the first half of the year, experts have expressed worry that malnutrition in children is again on the rise.

A Policy Officer with the Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition, (GTLC) Mr. Emmanuel Wullingdool, said as part of efforts to reduce malnutrition among children, a committee on nutrition would be setup up at the community level to champion the need for healthy diets among community members especially children.

“A community committee would be formed and bring different sectors together. They’ll be drawn from Health, Agriculture, the communities and Religious bodies so that together, the committee can further educate the communities.”

“You realize that in some of the cases it is not that they do not have the food but how to combine the food in the right way becomes a challenge. So such a committee will help them know how to prepare nutritious foods with that they have,” he said

Mr. Wullingdool explained the importance of sensitizing residents to the need for children to eat nutritious meals saying “a child that is malnourished, his or her potential in life is cut off because even if that child is rehabilitated through the usage of the plumpy nuts and other forms of medication, the child cannot attain his or her full potential and that should call for concern from everybody.”

The Wa West Nutrition Officer Simon Aman Awini said his office is doing the best it can to educate people on the need to eat healthy meals. He said some of the strategies the office is using to address acute malnutrition among children include; ‘Infant and Young Child Feeding Practice.’

Mr. Aman Awini said “we identify children 0-24 months, pregnant and lactating mothers, those having nutritional challenges and give them nutrition counseling at the facility level, at the outreach points and when we go to their houses; what we call home visits. By so doing, the malnutrition cases are reducing; but the reduction is not as we want.”
Mr. Aman Awini alluded to the fact that more needs to be done in order to ensure that malnutrition among children is completely eradicated. The stakeholder meeting was attended by staff of the Wa West District Assembly, other Civil Society Organisations and community members.

Story by Mark Smith