Tuesday 16 August 2016

Malnutrition in Uganda

There is an important triad in treating malnutrition:
  1. Good diet, eating 3 meals a day with the 3 food groups: protein, carbohydrate and fat or oil
  2. Education, understanding what a good diet is and how to grow nutritious food
  3. Food security, having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food
Understanding these 3 components of a good diet is an important strategy for treating malnutrition. The poster continues:
Over 30 per cent of children in Uganda suffer from chronic malnutrition, which leads to stunting. Stunting, in turn, has devastating physical and mental effects, robbing children of a chance to reach their full potential. Africa’s Nutrition Security Partnership (ANSP) is a European Union and UNICEF initiative that's tackling the complex and interwoven causes of stunting. “Stunting as a whole is attributed to three larger areas," says Nutrition Specialist for UNICEF Uganda Nelly Birungi. "Direct nutrition interventions can only contribute a third of the piece. And then education only contributes another third of the piece, and food security contributes the other third of the piece. A lot of community dialogue sessions are happening, but also, community-led engagements on nutrition, food security, gender, livelihood, water and sanitation are key." These nutrition efforts in Uganda, which began in 2011 and will continue through April 2015, are part of ANSP's larger aim to directly benefit 1 million children and 600,000 pregnant women in four countries in Africa.

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