About 45 percent of children who are below the age of 5 are stunted due to malnutrition in Zambia.
Zambia Civil Society – Scaling Up Nutrition (CSOSUN) Alliance has said children who are undernourished are at a greater risk of having difficulty in learning, playing or engaging in normal childhood activities.
CSOSUN Alliance National Coordinator William Chilufya pointed out that undernourished children are more vulnerable to disease due to weakened immune response.
He told ZANIS in an interview today that a child’s nutritional future begins with the mother’s nutritional status during her adolescence and during pregnancy.
Mr Chilufya explained that the empowering of women especially expectant mothers is critical to the health of the unborn child and to the future generations.
Mr Chilufya further noted that every child has the right to adequate and appropriate nutrition as stipulated under Article 6 and 24 of the Convention on the Right’s of a Child.
Mr Chilufya said the Alliance consider malnutrition as a violation of children’s rights.
He added that empowering women plays a pivotal role of improving nutrition in many households and is cardinal to the growth and development of children.
Mr Chilufya said that the Alliance appreciates the role women play in ensuring that Children do not get malnourished.
He stated that empowering women will help them to expand their ability to make strategic life choices especially on the nutrition of their family.
“As CSOSUN, we feel there is need to empower women to make informed choices such as breastfeeding and nutritious foods during pregnancy and lactating. Considering the important role that women play in improving the nutrition status of children,” noted Mr. Chilufya.
Mr Chilufya said according to the 2013 Zambia Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) progress report, women’s low socioeconomic status and reproductive role expose them to risks of poor health and premature death.
He stressed that the high maternal mortality rate in the country is rooted in gender inequality.
Meanwhile, Mr Chilufya has observed that most girls have no access to sexual reproductive health information and services hence the high cases of adolescent pregnancies.
ZANIS
That can be true.. compare size of the current Chipolopolo national team compared to those who died in 1993 plane crash or 1996 team at South Africa. All where in the 20s.
I saw those girls under 17 going for world cup, they look like grade 7s. Is it stunted? Probably something else.
@Nostradamus
you are very right brother, this reports cant be `accurate` Guy scot mzungu opusa has created and released 60,000 jobs news,, people must getting fat instead,,, with all the brand new districts created,,,,,,with all the road been constructed, all the unversities people must very educated now than ever before.,,,, the kwacha is stronger than ever,,, a lot people following the president Sata on Facebook…alll this development!!.. surely people cant be stunted
LT the statistics show that of those 45% the majority are from Western and Southern provinces and less than 0.7% are from northern province.
I am not being a tribalist just merely stating who looks after who.
I was brought up in Lusaka and have spent 1/3 of my life in the Uk so basically if there was any ‘stuntism’ in me it has been wiped out
Thanks
Even FJT Chiluba was stunted bane.
This report is false there is actually more than 45% stunted
You grow up in that country you pay. If anything most are stunted mentally on here (at LT)
Thanks
Stunted mentally, pew , Mushota! Stunted physically, well many factors at play, including nutrition. Late FTJ was not the tallest man nor shortest. Ask the chinese people and hear if their average height is caused by nutrition, you wont get the answer you want. There are many factors. Have you also considered the heat from sun which evaporates your moisture hundred fold than those in cooler countries, may be it also stunts us, coupled with hard work of subsistance food production. Many, many, many, many factors. Is there radiation where you were born and no body knows about it for time in memorial? Stunted mentally!
Stunted growth equals stunted brains! Look at the reasoning of most Zambians!
Mushota, Lozi and Tonga’s are on average the tallest people in Zambia? Aren’t you the same morons who say Lozis have big feet? Honestly how can Situmbeko Musokotwane have the same feet size as Chikwanda? How can Michael Kaingu, Oliver Saasa or Malimba Masheke have the same shoe size as Kambwili, Sata or Nevers Mumba? Mushota if you want to find stunted people in Zambia look amongst your people from the North of the country. Lozis and Tongas are protein consumers who can digest milk in its fresh and fermented form unlike you chaps from the North!
@Mushota why are you so defensive? Are you feeling guilty?. This article didn’t mention tribe, but been the rabid tribalist that you are you brought in Tongas and Lozis. As Sepo above has mentioned please look amongst your people in the North. For some reason you people are of a small stature compared to Lozis and Tongas. Yes it could be something in your diet. You should stop laughing at people who keep cattle and drink mabisi. Have you ever seen a Lozi or Tonga politician who is the size of kambwili, Chiluba, Kapeya or Chipimo?
Any wonder Zambia has never qualified for World Cup!
This makes sad reading.And i`m just from chatting online with a Zedian woman who had stunted growth(And still has) and she is very insecure about it 22 years later today.How weird that this article has come right after i finished counselling her.
Hmmmmn? Saulosi, counsiling a woman!? How, be honest man, was it practically to prove that she can handle it, even better than the largest (I will not mention her husband name).
The best you can tell your new short-sweet 22 is that she has “the only thing which is short is LIFE. She not, she just started”
I wish it was me counseling her, and the expert in these kind of issue. I think I have mentioned my expertise… ” My ideas are not afraid of height”.
It also shows that the government (including past governments) is stunted as well in terms of governance. Thats why Zambia’s economy has been stunted for years because of stunted leadership, despite all the natural resources Zambia is endowed with.
That indicates government policies havent been working. Any govt focuses on a nation’s future. The reduction of Under Five deaths, malnutrition Increase in primary school enrollment are what show that a government is working for its people
This is true just look at winter Kabimba that is a good example do not even go far.
50 years after Independence really, what’s wrong with our brains we Africans???
Some of us zambians are so dim. You hear one statement from an unknown ngo and you are there believing without questioning the research they undertook to arrive at such a scandalous conclusion. Most of you fellows probably need to go back to school. It’s never too late. Then you will learn to analyse and critique things you read.
I agree. To a regular newsreader, everything sounds true when it is spelled out fed to him; but we have to learn to be critical, to research and to travel in order to obtain data on our own.
I personally, have no problem with this report but I’ll be on my way to do my research in order to understand the medical connections in relation with stunted growth. I do not want to repeat the information or spread it without having any detailed knowledge about it – just because William Chilufya said so.
PS. it would also be interesting to see survey results in other countries e.g. China or Italy. Or is it Africans alone who qualify to be “stunted” when small in size?
Malnutrition is caused by lack of disparate food constituents that enrich the body and allows normal growth of our cells in order to live a relatively healthy life. Therefore, the symptoms of malnutrition are the same anywhere and everywhere there’re malnourished children. Malnutrition is a disease of hunger, abject poverty, misery and has no place in humanity yet African children die in numbers because of this scourge caused by corruption.
POVERTY ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO PROSPERITY EVERYWHERE
Study the caption above and you will realise why the western world would calm a turmoil anywhere around the world before it escalates. The effects of war and devastation caused can affect a region and other far flung places like Europe for decades to come either in monetary assistance or people
This is not news. There’s been reports by UNICEF before attesting to the same thing.
you cant expect normal growth when people live on one dollar a day..
Whence Zambia’s future? These are supposedly Zambia’s future leaders, scientists and engineers! The future looks bleak.
USELESS STATISTICS AND ONLY GOOD AS A WEAPON TO BEG MONEY FROM DONATING COUNTRIES- 45% IN A POLUATION OF WHAT? TO WHICH CHILDREN ARE WHAT IN POPULATION? AND WHO FUNDED THE RESEARCH-?
Survival of the fittest under PF! The pocket less children are its worst victims.
The title of the article is incoherent with the content. There is nothing in the article defines or explains what research was undertaken, where and the findings. It rather talks about malnutrition and poor health in pregnancy, nothing specific about stunted growth.
Another crazy african has come up with another wild statistic, just like the one they wrongly advised KK with on HIV, they told him that one in four Zambians are HIV positive! KK went with it and told the world and donations to these fake NGO’s quadrupled! A few years later, the learned people who deal with real HIV cases told KK that statistics he has been using were wrong and too high and advised him not to get information from these quacks like Chilufya! This became an embarrassment to KK and he had to apologise to the international community for misleading them and KK had to quit the AIDS campaign on the international level.
Chilufya is not qualified to be giving us all this information, he should let medical people and CSO staff do this job not this hocus pocus with no…
Do you think Chilufya came up with these statistics himself? You think he dreamt them up? I am driven to believe that there was a consultative process in releasing these statistics. The role of NGO is to supplement government efforts so if CSO is not doing its job, chaps like Chilufya do it! Don’t just criticise for the sake of it. That’s why there is no progress in this country.
With poorer agriculture policies and poor harvest under uncle Bob Sichinga, things will only get worse.
Current status
Stunting
Globally, one quarter of under-five children are stunted or an estimated 162 million in 2012. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have particularly high prevalence, at about 38 per cent in both. This indicates an urgent need to accelerate integrated programmes addressing nutrition during the mother’s pregnancy and before the child reaches two years of age, the period of children’s most rapid physical and mental growth and development.
One in four children in the world are stunted
Percentage of children under five years who are stunted in 2012
Note: Estimates are calculated according to WHO Child Growth Standards. More information on the modelling methodology can be found here.
Source: United Nations Children’s Fund, World Health…
@Balabala
Medical statistics are not straight forward like population census, a lot of factors which can cause or affect children and lead to a certain problem have to be investigated. You cannot just throw a percentage at people without giving them any background information on the study or research which was undertaken and the number of children who were sampled in the study. Studies like this needs a minimum of 6 years to undertake because you have to study the healthy of expecting mothers who are carrying the subjects of your study, so that you can eliminate genetic influences.
I never trust a politician or anyone who gives percentages instead of actual figures, we get a % of something, we have to know if the 45% was for 10, 20 or 1 million children who were sampled in the study!
If you are trying to lose weight, choose food based on their weight-to-calorie ratio. You want to eat food that weighs a lot but has few calories.