Creating awareness: Govt promotes mother and child wellness

Official says authorities are is committed to making nutrition a priority

LAHORE: A mass awareness campaign called ‘Umeed Say Aagay - promoting mother and child wellness in the first thousand days and beyond - was launched on Tuesday.

The Punjab Planning and Development Department, in collaboration with Nutrition Section/SUN Secretariat Ministry of Planning Development and Reform and Human Development Foundation, organised the event at the P&D Complex, Lahore.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Planning and Development Provincial Secretary Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that the Punjab government is committed to making nutrition a priority in the province. He said it was also crucial to recognise that Punjab is not the only province working towards malnutrition, but each provincial government, as well as federal governments, have been making considerable efforts in devising adequate measures to overcome nutrition-based hurdles.

Sahoo explained how critical the issue of malnutrition is for the nation's development. He added that creating awareness about the importance of nutrition among the public is the need of the hour.

Health and Nutrition Chief Saleem Masih, while inaugurating the session, said nutrition has been on the priority list of the Punjab government.

Masih said malnutrition is a multi-faceted issue to which a number of factors, including health, education, water, sanitation, hygiene, population planning, and food intake, contribute

In Punjab, the high rates of malnutrition highlight a prevalent multi-sectoral issue whereby the health status of the population is low, particularly among women and children, with half of the children aged between 12-23 months still not fully immunised.

Chief Nutritionist Aslam Shaheen while sharing the conception of the idea "Umeed say Aagay" HDF Executive Director Saeedul Hassan said the objective of the campaign is to create mass awareness about the importance of healthy nutrition practices for mother and children in the first 1,000 days through a youth-led social movement. He added that the aim is to promote early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding for up to six months and continued breastfeeding up to two years.

More than 400,000 mothers and children die each year due to malnutrition, he said, adding that these deaths are preventable.

World Food Programme's Head of Nutrition Cecilia Garzon and Fatima Jinnah Medical University's Head of Preventive Pediatrics Dr Rameeza Kalim talked about the importance of the first 1000 days for the mother and the child.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2018.