A media-based non-governmental advocacy group, the Media Centre Against child Malnutrition
(MeCAM) has disclosed its partnering with the Global Alliance for Improved
Nutrition (GAIN) and Scale-up Nutrition Business Network (SBN), to boost information
sharing on nutrition in Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.
A
press statement endorsed by the Director, Outreach at MeCAM, Mrs. Julie Ekong
and made available to NaijaAgroNet, said the partnership is sequel to the
forthcoming MeCAM Nutrition Symposium scheduled to hold in Lagos on Friday,
August 4, this year, with the theme "Malnutrition,
child development and the media."
She
quoted the National Coordinator of Media Centre Against child Malnutrition
(MeCAM), Mr. Remmy Nweke, as saying, the partnership would go a long way in scaling
up media participation in the crusade to better the lots of Nigerians on
nutrition with the right and accurate information.
Specifically,
he said that the partnership would benefit child development and the role of
media, in a developing economy like Nigeria and beckoned on other stakeholders
to emulate GAIN by partnering with MeCAM in this auspicious event.
Nweke,
who doubles as the Group Executive Editor at DigitalSENSE Africa Media, also
said that at the forthcoming Nutrition Symposium by MeCAM, would see to the
leadership of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Scale-up
Nutrition Business Network (SBN) taking discussion on “Communicating Nutrition
Messages to Stakeholders: Role of the Media.”
The
GAIN and SBN team, he confirmed, would be led by Country Team Lead at GAIN and
coordinator of SBN Nigeria, Uduak Igbeka, and would dwell on the sub-theme with
expertise and dispatch, alongside other experts with vast experiences on the
subject matter.
Further,
he quoted the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as recently declaring
that estimated 12.9 per cent of the Nigeria’s 190m population has been
projected to be among some 5 million undernourished people in the world today.
Nweke revealed that MeCAM is resolute to use this symposium to not
just draw public attention to the threat that malnutrition poses to the future
of the country, but to also correct the impression that this menace is
restricted to the poor.
He emphasized that UNICEF had estimated, at least 2.5m Nigerian
children suffer from acute malnutrition (SAM), thus posing the danger of many
of them being at risk of death unless properly treated and of course with right
information.
This situation, he said, represents clear and is dangerous to the
socioeconomic wellbeing of the entire country.
MeCAM, he said, is peopled exclusively
by journalists, and mediapreneurs to push the narratives to save the Nigerian
child from the danger of malnutrition through scaling up reporting and
advocacy, among others.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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