ASABA/Nigeria: Delta State Government in collaboration with the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) is set to launch adolescent nutrition programme.
Disclosing this today during a press briefing, the Chairman of the Delta State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Isioma Okobah said that the programme was targeted at young persons from 10-19 years.
She said that the program, which is a five-year intervention program by UNICEF, would be flagged off by the wife of the state governor and UNICEF Nutrition Champion of the state, Dame Edith Okowa on Thursday, 8th November, 2018.
The agency chairman revealed that Delta State alongside Katsina State were the two state in the federation picked by UNICEF to pilot the Adolescent Nutrition Program, adding the Governor Health for All Deltans (HeFAD) policy choice of the state was necessitated by the state governor’s Health for All Deltans policy, largely influenced the choice of Delta.
Dr. Okobah appreciated the wife of the governor for her commitment to healthcare mostly during her medical outreach and also commended UNICEF for partnering the state in driving the HeFAD Agenda.
The Executive Director of the Agency, Dr Jude Winful-Orieke, said that the intervention program, which is the first in Nigeria, was to address the prevalence of anaemia and malnutrition among adolescent.
He said three local government areas, Ika North East, Isoko South and Ethiope West would serve as pilot LGA in the state while Okpe would serve as control, added that the LGAs were picked from a baseline survey conducted and that the intervention would be with iron folate, zinc and deworming supplements.
