Kakamega county malnutrition rate drops to 11.5 percent

Lugari,

Monday, September 18, 2023

KNA by Melechezedeck Ejakait

Kakamega Health Services department has announced a significant drop in the county’s malnutrition rate in the last nine years attributing it to sustained multi-sectoral interventions.

The County Executive Committee Member for Health Services Bernard Wesonga made the disclosure at Matete Sub-County Hospital during a graduation ceremony for 64 children who are beneficiaries of a 90-day rehabilitation exercise under the pilot Positive Deviance Hearth (PDH) program targeting Chevaywa and Lwandeti ward.

“Our County has for a long time battled with malnutrition. In 2014 the malnutrition rate for the county stood at 28 per cent.

“However, through multi-sectoral collaborations and high impact nutrition interventions such as the PDH we have successfully brought down the rate to 11.5 per cent,” Wesonga disclosed.

Despite the major drop Wesonga said more needs to be done by his department, other stakeholders and the community to further reduce the rate.

He said: “We still have a lot of work to do especially to achieve the PDH goals.

“We need to identify children with or at risk of malnutrition, to quickly rehabilitate malnourished children, to enable families to sustain their rehabilitation at home independently and to prevent further malnutrition among newborns in the community.

“Notably the community must change its norms in childcare and health feeding practices.

“Cultural beliefs and practices that do not promote good health for children should be put aside and good practices found in the community adopted.”

He added that the department is working out on a multi-faceted approach involving other departments like agriculture, education, social protection and water which offer nutrition-sensitive solutions to the community.

Wesonga reminded stakeholders that the success of the PDH pilot program in the two wards is a clear indicator that sustainable solutions to community problems already exist within them and just need to be discovered.

He noted that the PDH program is a globally accepted intensive behavior change nutrition approach that enables the channeling of resources to communities to help them independently address malnutrition with solutions that are affordable and sustainable.

“Congratulations to parents of the 64 pilot beneficiaries and the healthcare workers for their commitment towards ensuring they graduate from malnourishment to better health. This graduation is proof that the program can work,” He stated.

He appealed to the parents to share the skills and knowledge they have gained in the 90 days with others and take care of their children to prevent the problem from recurring.

Wesonga lauded World Vision International and other partners for supporting the program in Matete and ensuring its success through their agricultural and educational based activities urging them to replicate the same in other sub counties.

Keziah Ouma from World Vision International called for more collaborative efforts from the County Government and other stakeholders in order to scale up the program to other sub counties.

She lauded the county’s health department for its commitment towards ensuring the successful implementation of the pilot PDH program.

Positive Deviance Hearth Program is an Agri-Nutritional program sponsored by World Vision targeting malnourished children aged 6 to 36 months, identified by Community Health Promoters in Chevaywa and Lwandeti wards in Matete Sub County.

Under the program, trainers and nutritionists take the identified children and their parents through a 90-day nutrition training and rehabilitation session.

The children are weighed after every 30 days to establish their progress and graduate once they achieve the recommended weight. 

Courtesy; KNA