Health department launches nutrition support programme

Experts claim 40.5% of children in Sindh are underweight

KARACHI: After a year-long delay, the health department launched the ‘Nutritional Support Programme (NSP) on Thursday.

The three-year programme has been launched in nine districts, including Jacobabad, Kashore-Kandhkot, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Sanghar, Umerkot and Tharparkar.

The aim of the programme is to improve the nutritional status of children under the age of five and of pregnant and lactating women, with a focus on malnourished, poverty-stricken people and other disadvantaged people such as women, female children and children with disabilities.

Read: Weighty matters: Separate budget to tackle malnutrition

In a two-day inception workshop at the Ramada hotel on Thursday, around 200 experts from various organisations, including medical experts and pediatricians, attended and shared their opinion on the overall components of the programme.

Explaining the social and economic context behind the project, Dr Fahim Aijaz, the NSP programme manager, said that the current prevalence of wasting, being underweight and stunted growth amongst children in Sindh stands at a staggering 17.5 per cent, 40.5 per cent and 49.8 per cent respectively. “Policy making is required at community, provincial and regional levels,” she urged.

“The Sindh government is committed to supporting this initiative,” said Sindh health minister Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar. He said that a very precise strategy is needed to address malnutrition in Sindh. “A complete plan is the need of the hour for children and women,” he added.



Dr Aijaz said that the project will be implemented with the support of the People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative (PPHI) Sindh through the use of their staff and primary health care facilities, adding that the project will be extended to the remaining districts in next phase.

Read: Nutrition: ‘Healthy babies for a healthy nation’

The key role in implementing the project, said Dr Mohsin Siddiqui, an official of the PPHI, will belong to the lady health workers (LHWs) and community midwives (CMWs). He said that out of 1,897 CMWs only 558 will work with the team for the task in the selected districts.

The health secretary, Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo, and health director-general, Dr Syed Hasan Murad Shah, assured their support in implementing the project at grassroot levels.

The planning and development secretary, Rehana Memon, said that Sindh was the first province to complete the plan.

The PPHI officials said that the objectives of the programme were to ensure the availability of food for infants and young children and community based management of acute malnutrition services to the population in selected districts, focusing on economically, socially and physically disadvantaged residents.

Dr Siddiqui said that the district set up will be responsible for the implementation of the NSP, primarily done through LHWs and CMWs.

The focal person of the Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Programme, Dr Sahib Jan, pointed out that there is difference in the capacity of the LHWs and CMWs. “Tharpakar is an eye opener for children with iron deficiency,” she added. “We have to reduce the overall mortality rate.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2015.