BY JUDE OSSAI / ENUGU
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Executive Secretary/CEO of the
Enugu State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (ENPHCDA), Dr Ifeyinwa Ani-Osheku has reiterated the state government’s commitment to healthcare delivery in the state.
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Ani-Osheku stated this on Friday when national officials of the Civil Society – Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) led by their Programme Manager, Dr Goodness Anyanwu paid advocacy visit to her office.
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The officials of (CS-SUNN) sought for partnership with the Agency in the campaign for an extention of maternity leave to six months for women in employ of the state, improved nutrition and exclusive breastfeeding by nursing mothers.
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Ani-Osheku told the CS-SUNN officials that she was delighted to receive them, assuring them of her total collaboration.
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According to her, “At the onset of Governor Peter Mbah’s administration, nutrition was a topical issue and I am aware it was placed before His Excellency on several occasions. They paid a visit to His Excellency together with the Commissioner of Health and couple of other partners. The governor was really touched by some of the statistics that we put forward and he said to us that whatever he can do to reverse that it will be his utmost honour to do.
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“His Excellency understands the importance of nutrition, that is why in current smart school project that is going on in Enugu State, he said that every child that enrols in that school will get one free meal in addition to that, every smart brain is going to boast of school farm”, she added.
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On issue of counterparts funding, Ani-Osheku explained, “As a state, I must say that there are alot of competing interests. The same way nutrition is on the front burner, other issues are on the front burner too and it is not like they have the funds.
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“As a government, they want its impact felt in every sector and that is why the release of the one hundred thousand million. Condider it as a drop in the ocean but on the part of the government, it is a serious matter. The government will do more when fund is available.
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“We talk about the stunted rate, how stunting can be put side by side with communitive decline and how it can transform to vicious cycle of poverty and economic down turn.
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“And with the present economic hardship the world is witnessing, we are also beginning to see more and more cases of malnutrition.
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“Recently, we had our first round of optimise maternal and new born child week. It was towards the end of July and it was surprisingly to see that we were beginning to see lots of severely malnourished children. This is real life situation.
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“I fully align with this movement as it is really pathetic to see this category of children and is like almost holding a candle in a wind and the wind just blow, that is how I view the life of these children, we don’t know who amongs them will become president or even a very influential person tomorrow.
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Earlier, the Programme Manager of CS-SUNN, Dr Anyanwu said, “Enugu State is one of our priority states since we started the UNICEF project and our mission here is to support the work that the state chapter team here has been doing on ground.
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“We are asking for three things – the implementation of six months maternity leave, improved funding and creation of nutrition department.
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“Let me start from funding aspect. The reason the creation of nutrition department is very expedient is because of poor coordination and poor financing for nutrition and national counsellor for nutrition and office of the Vice President approved it.
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“It approved the creation of nutrition department and agency with strong interest and development agencies in the state level as they are much in touch with the people at the grassroot.
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“So, creating a good environment for working mothers to breast feed their infants is very key in improving the productivity.
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“Around the child nutrition fund, Enugu has already released N100m . The N100m can only procure 3,000 of RTF. The N100m is not enough but the state has actually seen the issue is serious. Kano State has N500m and Sokoto has committed N500m. They even did it in state primary of child development agency.
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“We have the platform, the influence, power and capacity to get fund out of the child nutrition fund. If you come to the states you will see 10-15 working and it is not that the Southeast does not have but they want to see what people are doing. They want to be attracted to the states.
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“I really want to make that as part of what you can help us to ensure that we have that attention of partner.
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