2 children die of Malnutrition every hour

 Two children in Ghana die from malnutrition-related causes every hour, Nutrition specialist and Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Kasim Abdulai, has disclosed.

He said despite interventions over the years to address the health threat, it continues to threaten the lives of thousands of children, particularly during the first 1,000 days of life; from conception to a child’s third birthday.

“Just imagine how many children we lose in a day due to the triple burden of malnutrition in Ghana. Nothing is more important compared to nutrition during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life not even medication.

It is the nutrients that help to build the child’s immune system, their men­tal development, and physical growth and it is crucial that we pay needed attention to nutrition for maternal and child health,” Dr Abdulai who is also Director of Operations of the Coalition of Actors for Public Health Advocacy (CAPHA), stated.

He was presenting findings of a research on key nutrition situation, trends and funding gaps in Ghana during a capacity building workshop for selected journalists and civil soci­ety organisations focused on nutrition in Accra last Tuesday.

Organised by CAPHA in partnership with the Women, Media and Change (WOMEC) network, the training was to rally participants to champion nutrition interventions in Ghana to promote a healthier population and reduce disease burden.

Furthermore, Dr Abdulai said with 42 per cent of Ghanaian women of repro­ductive age being anaemic, wasting and stunting among children at 7 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively, the need to tackle root causes like good nutrition among the population couldn’t be more critical.

He called for urgent invest­ment into nutrition, especially domestically, in view of dwin­dling donor aid saying; “Nutri­tion is not charity, it is a right. If we nourish our children today, we secure our nation’s future tomorrow.”

“Let’s not wait for another child to die before we act. We must act now because the cost of inaction is measured in lives lost every hour,” he urged.

Executive Director of WOMEC, Dr Charity Binka, decried the malnutri­tion burden in Ghana despite invest­ments made into the area over the years.

She emphasised that the time was up to break the silence around malnutrition with deliberate efforts channeled into promoting exclusive breastfeeding, good complementary feeding, and hygienic food practices.

“We need to invest into our local foods to nourish our children and en­sure nutrition is part of our everyday conversations right from our homes.

Fighting malnutrition is not just about saving lives. It’s about unlocking Ghana’s full potential. When we invest in nutrition, we invest in education, health, economic growth, and social progress,” she explained.

 By Abigail Annoh