KARACHI-Nutrition International partnered with the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination (MoNHSR&C) and Health Department Sindh to launch NourishMaa Campaign – an initiative aimed to promote maternal nutrition agenda in the province. The joint efforts of the partners aim to improve the knowledge and skills of healthcare providers (HCPs) and frontline health workers (FHWs) in four districts of Sindh with the overall goal to improve maternal nutrition status in the targeted areas.
Nasir Hussain Shah, Provincial Minister of Sindh for Local Governments expressed appreciation for the efforts of Nutrition International in launching this initiative, and assured government’s ample support to successfully implementing the campaign in the province.
The latest National Nutrition Survey 2018 confirms the macro and micronutrient deficiencies amongst women of reproductive age (WRA) are very alarming, 14.4% WRA are underweight similarly 42% of them are anaemic while 22% are vitamin A deficient. These high rates of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies among WRA indicate a vicious cycle of malnutrition in the country which needs to be urgently addressed.
Through this initiative, the campaign aims to achieve some specific outcomes – enhanced maternal nutrition knowledge among HCPs and FHWs, meaningful engagement of HCPs on the subject, and increased knowledge and motivation of KOLs for accelerating actions to advance maternal nutrition agenda at the national and provincial levels.
Stressing the critical need for investing in maternal nutrition, Dawar Adnan Shams, The National Campaign Manager for NourishMaa, Nutrition International said: “Maternal nutrition is an important issue to be addressed as it is directly linked to the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.”
Speaking at the launching event, Dr. Pir Ghulam Hussain, Additional Director General Health Services Sindh, said that altogether over 400,000 medical professionals and outreach workers are working in the country.