By Ahmad Umar
Gombe(Nigeria)–Members of the Gombe State House of Assemble, northeast of the country have expressed shock and distrust over what they called unpleasant extremely malnourished children in Gombe State.
The lawmakers made the remark during a facility tour of Community Management Acute Malnutrition sites in Tudun-Wada Maternity, in the state capital.
The legislators were on tour after attending a two day workshop for Capacity Development on Universal Health Coverage organised by the United Nation Children Funds (UNICEF) in Gombe on Wednesday
Some of the lawmakers spoke in anger and frustration over the recurring evidences noticed at the Community Management Acute Malnutrition sites, in-spite of interventions from international donor agencies.
Also speaking, Mr. Amos Fabulous, Chairman House of Assembly Information Committee said, “The donors should just pack-up and go so that when the reality really downs on us, we will face the situation squarely”.
He said the issue of malnutrition has only been receiving palliative measures rather than addressing the main issue. He said the solution to some of these issues is not the plumpy-nuts but socio-cultural.
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A particular case of an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) and her thirteen months old child, drew the attention of the entire entourage on the visit.
It was gathered that the woman who had been in Gombe for the past one year, had escorted a friend who wanted medication for her child but unknown to her, her thirteen month old child was severely malnourished.
The child weighed 5.1 kg and was pale and needed immediate attention. She was however referred to the State Specialist Hospital for stabilization.
Gombe state has been recording severe cases of malnutrition in recent years despite interventions by government and international donor agencies.
There are four Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) sites in Gombe State while intense advocacies by civil society groups have been going on, on the need for scaling up.
