The Media in the country have been urged to intensively report on nutrition to fight against malnutrition. This was established on Thursday during Global Day of Action towards nutrition press briefing in Lilongwe.
The Chairperson of Civil Society Organization Nutrition Alliance Malawi (CSONA) Gwyneth Cotes said that the aim of the Global Day of Actions (GDA) is to raise awareness on the negative effects of malnutrition and more importantly serving as a window of opportunity to exhibit pressure for action around nutrition.
“GDA for 2015 will be held in Mulanje district from first May to 8 to engage all stakeholders in combating malnutrition and encouraging government to implement nutrition sensitive interventions in key sectors such as agriculture gender social protection, education and WASH and child development”, said Cotes.
In addition, Cotes suggest that GDA can be achieved by increasing the public and political profile for nutrition in the national press and political disclosure so as to increase knowledge and awareness of national policies, the need for their implementation and any potential changes needed to them for success of nutrition sector and human livelihoods.
Chairperson of Parliamentary Committee for HIV/Aids and Nutrition Deus Gumba Banda state that media has a paramount role to play in anti-malnutrition in Malawi. Citing that media as informer, educator and entertainer can easily convey information on Malnutrition for better. “Media as channel of communication between the government and people and between people and government has responsibility on nutrition. Good nutrition foods allow brain to function properly resulting more effective knowledge particularly in children at school”, Banda said.
The Director for Department of Nutrition and HIV/Aids (DNHA) Felix Phiri, in an interview lamented that government prioritize nutrition to leach Zero tolerance in ending preventable child and newborn deaths. “In Malawi 42% children under five are stunted, a form of chronic malnutrition the effect of which is largely irreversible hence urging the media to inform the public of silent killer called Malnutrition. More than half (53%) of children born to mothers with no education are stunted, compared to 39% of the children whose mother have secondary education or higher”, said Phiri.
Further Phiri cites that good nutrition, especially during the critical 1000 days between pregnancy and age two, is foundational to the physical and cognitive development of infants and young children. However, the looming hunger which results to malnutrition continues to kill Malawians particularly in Neno, Mwanza,Lilongwe and Blantyre districts. Therefore, addressing malnutrition will save live and reduce inequalities to build strong, resilient children, families, communities and populations.
Chairperson for NAMISA Thom Khanje among others encourage the media, Malawi government to continue prioritizing and implementing nutrition policies in anti-malnutrition campaign if infants death is to be reduced. The strength and the role of Civil Society in ensuring improved governance for nutrition can also be enforced by empowering women in gender issue that can help them to find their wants and needs.
