A 4-Day training workshop aimed at equipping 20 Animators (Community Volunteers) with the knowledge and skills required to support mothers and caregivers on ideal feeding for infants and young children at the community level has commenced in Koforidua.
Speaking at the opening of the 4-day training workshop, the Maternal and Child Health Project Coordinator at The Hunger Project-Ghana, Stephanie Ashley welcomed the participants selected from 5 Epicenters to the workshop and urged them to fully partake in all the activities adding that the volunteers play a key role in the implementation of the project.
In the past decade, Ghana has made significant strides in tackling poverty and providing access to basic services.
However, progress has not been uniform across the country. In rural Ghana, these improvements have not reached the majority of people.
As a result, many children in the country continue to suffer from serious and preventable health issues, including those stemming from malnutrition.
Across the country, nearly one in five children is stunted, a condition caused by chronic undernutrition and characterized by low height for age. Additionally, 66 per cent of children under age five are anaemic.
Anaemia caused by iron deficiency, illnesses such as malaria, and parasites is a major threat to child health and a leading cause of maternal mortality in young women who carry their anaemia from childhood to adolescence (DHS 2014).
We are committed to reducing the persistent problems of stunting in young children and anaemia in women and children. With technical assistance from the Ghana Health Service and funding from the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the support of medical research and medical-humanitarian development projects, we are rolling out programs that will enable us to reduce the numbers and one of such programs is to ensure that sufficient awareness is created for every nursing mother, especially for those in rural Ghana.
The training of local advocates referred to as “animators,” is key to all of our activities or programs.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Kwabena Nyarko Abronoma
