According to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF)
malnutrition is a direct or underlying cause of 45 per cent of all deaths of
under-five children, and Nigeria has the second highest burden of stunted
children in the world, with a national prevalence rate of 37 per cent of
children under five.
The UN agency in a statement on its website also noted that
an estimated 2 million children in Nigeria suffer from severe acute
malnutrition (SAM), but only two out of every 10 children affected is currently
reached with treatment.
It added that seven percent of women of childbearing age
also suffer from acute malnutrition, and that the first 1,000 days of a child’s
life offer a unique window of opportunity for preventing under nutrition and
its consequences.
However, to reverse the negative trend, the Chairman of
Aliko Dangote Foundation and Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote said;
“We recognise nutrition as a cross-cutting issue which
affects other critical development goals, that is why nutrition has become our
core focus. We want to reach one million malnourished children in Nigeria and
we know that for every dollar invested in nutrition, the nation as a whole will
reap huge economic dividends…”
“In addition, we shall reach households of children with SAM
and their communities that contribute the most to the SAM burden with food
security, cash-based interventions and livelihoods support, engendered infant
and young child feeding, hygiene and care-seeking behaviours”
Aliko Dangote Foundation is the private charitable
foundation of Aliko Dangote, incorporated in 1994 with the mission to enhance
opportunities for social change through strategic investments that improve
health and wellbeing, promote quality education, and broaden economic
empowerment opportunities.
Twenty-seven (27) years later, the Foundation has become the
largest private Foundation in sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest endowment by
a single African donor. The primary focus of ADF is child nutrition, with wraparound
interventions centered on health, education and empowerment, and disaster
relief. The Foundation also supports stand-alone projects with the potential
for significant social impact.
Under its Aliko Dangote Foundation Integrated Nutrition
Programme(ADFIN), the
Foundation in 2016, announced its intention to launch a
community-based nutrition programme, various components of which have been
implemented with some stakeholders. The intent has always been to use proven
interventions linked to social and behaviour change, promotion of fortification
of staple foods with essential micronutrients, community management of acute
malnutrition (CMAM), using ready to use therapeutic foods (RUFT) and nutritious
foods.
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