About 65 percent of children in Mongu district in Western province are said to be stunted owing to poor nutrition.
Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) Provincial Coordinator Mundia Mwangala disclosed during a one day stakeholders’ consultative meeting in Mongu.
Mr. Mwangala told the meeting that there was need for stakeholders to double their efforts that are aimed at tackling malnutrition levels among the children if Zambia was to achieve its vision of attaining middle income status by 2030.
He explained that proper nutrition plays a vital role in the early stages of the development of a child hence the need for parents and guardians to feed their infants in order to avert the scourge of malnutrition.
He pointed out that malnutrition can affect the intellectual growth of a child resulting into retardation of socio-economic development.
Mr. Mwangala said Zambia is one of the countries in the sub-Saharan region with the highest number of malnourished children.
He said 36 percent of children in Western Province are malnourished.
And speaking earlier, Adolescent Reproductive Health Advocates (ARHA) Chief Executive Officer Cassandra Matale explained that high illiteracy levels among pregnant and lactating women was one of the factors contributing to many babies being underweight.
Ms. Matale has since asked the Ministry of Health to widen its networks of sensitizing expectant mothers on the danger of food deficiency for their unborn babies.
She noted that inadequate trained nutritionists in the province has also contributed to the high levels of malnutrition affecting over 50 percent of children under the age of five.
And the Village of Hope Clinic Head of Department Nilene Van Velden disclosed that the institution was accommodating over 600 vulnerable children who are provided with various food supplements.
Dr. Velden bemoaned the high number of street children in the province and called for the concerted efforts in addressing the situation.
Meanwhile, Mongu Health Nutritionist Sitali Mwanamambo said her institution has embarked on an aggressive training of over 70 community health workers in five health facilities on the importance of taking folic drugs among expectant mothers.
Mongu District Fisheries Officer Numel Phiri has challenged all partners to work in collaboration with the department of fisheries in scaling up nutrition through crop diversification.
Mr. Phiri said the department was carrying-out sensitization campaigns among the women folk on the need for them to have fish ponds which can greatly help in fostering the nutritional status of their families.
Zambians across the board are malnuarished and stunted. Just look at our National Team when they go to CAF or CHAN competitions. They look much smaller than all the Teams.
Zambia is the third hungriest country in the world. That is the statistic, a horrible statistic.
What about the Chinese? They’re also tiny. Most of them have small bodies and big heads, isn’t that a sign of malnourishment?
This is a bad lie….genetics is real…genetics does not lie…if your mother is short and you take after her genes then you will be short too….