27 Aug 2019

Ghanzi Primary Hospital superintendent Dr Biyangidiki Finini has emphasised the need to drive nutritional agenda, saying nutrition was a fuel that propels economic prosperity.

Speaking after Ghanzi malnutrition awareness walk recently, Dr Finini said good nutrition could help prevent diseases among infants, children adults and elderly.

He stated that under-nutrition accounted for about 11 per cent of the global burden of diseases while it contributed to about one-third of all child death globally.

Dr Finini said it was estimated that population of children under five years was 5 327 in the Ghanzi District; 1 716 in the Charleshill Sub-district and 3 611 in Ghanzi East.

He said in the Ghanzi District, annual moderate malnutrition had increased from 7.4 per cent in 2015 and slightly increased to 8.1 per cent in 2016 as well as 10 per cent in 2017.

He observed that the district total underweight status ranged from 7.23 to 13 per cent from 2016 to 2018.

These figures, he said were far beyond the national target, which was less than 3.3 per cent.

The hospital superintendent stated that malnutrition among under-fives compounded risk factors for non-communicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and growth retardation, all of which are life-threatening and difficult to treat.

He regretted that food rations supplied by health facilities were feeding the whole family as opposed to infants because of lack of food.

He complained about the high defaulting rate on direct feeding, poor feeding practices and parental care by caregivers in the Ghanzi area.

Dr Finini said they had established a community support strategy to scale up high impact interventions by having more health education assistants.

This, he said helped in the follow-up of malnourished children at the household level and helped families with food insecurity challenge.

Nonetheless, Dr Finini said there was a lot that could and should be done to address the double burden of malnutrition in the Ghanzi District.

He was adamant that the multi-sectoral approaches to addressing food and nutrition security in the Ghanzi District would be successful, citing that one of the planned activities from the joint mission between District Health Management Team (DHMT), Letloa Trust and the University of British Colombia (UBC) that were ongoing, included malnutrition awareness walk, which is hoped to reduce the burden of malnourishment  among under-fives.

“It is my greatest hope that this awareness walk will strengthen sector-wide understanding of current nutrition policies, legal documents and agreed on strategies that have positive outcomes on nutrition and how we can sue limited resources to archive nutrition goals of a country,” Dr Finini said.

District population officer, Mr Thatayaone Maithamako and DHMT head of Preventative, Ms Peggy Mlazie were also concerned that food rations meant to nourish infants ended up feeding the whole family.

Mr Maithamako further stated that awareness walk should challenge all stakeholders to have an input towards raising a child.

He stated that Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) 2030-1-3 outline poverty eradication, ending hunger as well as health and wellness.

He said there were only 11 years to 2030, thus challenged the nation to double its efforts towards achievements of SGDs 2030.

Ghanzi DHMT nutritionist, Ms Onthatile Matsapa cautioned against feeding children with food containing caffeine, advancing that caffeine would remain unused in their blood, thus heightening the chances of anemia and will weaken the immune system.

If infants are not properly fed, he said, they may suffer malnutrition conditions such as stunting, wasting and oedematous.

The  awareness walk was  organised  by UBC PhD candidate,  who recently did her thesis in the Ghanzi area, Ms Tebogo Leepile  through  UBC partnership recognition fund, one of UBC’s flagship efforts of enhancing the institution’s relationship and engagement  with communities, in partnership  with Ghanzi DHMT and Lotloa Trust. Ends