The Coordinator of Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria Project in Kaduna State, Dr Zainab Muhammad-Idris, said it revived about 30,000 malnourished children in the state through a myriad of interventions.

Ms Muhammad-Idris, who said this at a one-day stakeholders’ debriefing workshop on Tuesday in Zaria, Kaduna State, stated that they assisted the state in the management of the children who were acutely malnourished.

She noted that the ANRiN project was largely a preventive intervention against the onset of malnutrition.

According to her, the project has in the past three years reached out to over four million beneficiaries comprising children, lactating mothers, pregnant women and adolescent girls.

As the ANRiN project in Kaduna ends by the end of the year, Ms Muhammad-Idris hoped that the good work, learning model, key successes and approaches used in delivering the project would be sustained and the expected practices sustained across the state.

She also hoped that the knowledge, awareness created and the information that were provided would be put to proper use.

Ms Muahmmad-Idris said, “We believe a lot of efforts and investments have been made. In doing that, we expect the institutions whose capacities have been built and personnel who were trained, especially community service providers and health workers delivering the services to continue even after exit of the project.

“We expect to see better food choices and maternal infant and young-child nutrition practices being upheld in homes and also families and individuals imbibing better health seeking behaviour in terms of nutrition and other health services. We expect to see improvement in the health services being provided at the facility level. This is why we partnered with the State Primary Health Care Board to strengthen our family health care facilities to deliver the services.”

The coordinator stressed that everyone, including families, communities, and any stakeholder that benefited from the project had a role to play in sustaining the efforts made by the ANRiN project.

She said that it was expected of every stakeholder especially those at the community levels to play their respective roles.

Ms Muhammad-Idris pointed out that faith-based leaders had been supportive in using the scriptures in passing information on how families should maintain healthy and nutritious lifestyles.

She added that they were poised in seeing that Kaduna State had no single case of any malnourished child or mother.

She stated, “It is doable, and this we aspire to see. At the end, we want to do away with chronic malnutrition which is exemplified by stunting and micro nutrients deficiencies.’’

Also speaking to journalists at the sidelines of the event, the Commissioner for the State Planning and Budget Commission (PBC), Mukthar Ahmed, restated its commitment to continue to coordinate the nutrition stakeholders and MDAs.

Mr Ahmed, represented by the Director, Development Aid Coordination, Aisha Muhammed, said the state committee on food and nutrition, which is domiciled at the PBC, cannot afford to neglect the invaluable contributions made by ANRiN project in the state.

He thanked them for their support and pledged to sustain their legacies for the betterment of nutrition indices in the state.

Earlier, the Nutrition Specialist for ANRiN project in Kaduna State, Hauwa Usman, said the workshop was aimed at presenting the progress they made so far in its implementation.

She added that it was to critically discuss sustainability plans as the ANRiN project comes to an end in the state by end of the year.

The stakeholders at the workshop included Society for Family Health, the State Primary Health Care Board, National Orientation Agency and the nutrition desk officers from various MDAs.

Others were the Kaduna Agriculture Development Agency, Kaduna Emergency Nutrition Action Plan and the Ministry of Local Governments, among others.

(NAN)