The United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), has reiterated its commitment to unrelenting collaboration with the Niger State government in supporting and promoting breastfeeding in the state.
Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, Mrs. Chinwe Ezeife, stated this at a symposium to commemorate the World Breastfeeding Week, tagged: Step up breastfeeding and support, recently, in Minna, the state capital.
She explained that UNICEF had supported the state on maternal infant and young child feeding practices in communities and exclusive breastfeeding for six months.
“After six months of exclusive breastfeeding, the mother will introduce appropriate complementary food for the child and still breastfeed the child for 24 months and beyond and this support is ongoing in 14 local government areas of the state.
“We have trained community volunteers who have been doing house-to-house sensitisation to explain these practices to them,” she said.
Ezeife noted that UNICEF, in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and the state’s Primary HealthCare Development Agency, would embark on communities’ dialogue with traditional and religious leaders on their roles to support women in breastfeeding.
She added that the organisation would partner with the state’s Primary Healthcare Development Agency to improve the capacity of health workers on how they can support mothers to embrace breastfeeding.
The United Nations has raised the alarm that no fewer than 5,000 children in war-ravaged northeastern Nigeria will die of starvation in the next two months unless the world raises the necessary funds for intervention
