Spirulina-enhanced School meals drive 20% enrollment surge in Amanhyia - NaijaAgroNet

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The battle against hidden hunger in West Africa took a high-tech, nutritional turn this week as Food for All Africa commemorated International School Meals Day and the 11th African Day of School Feeding, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The community event in Amanhyia brought together over 900 stakeholders, including students from three Eastern region beneficiary schools, parents, and teachers; to witness the transformative power of "nutritionally fortified" education.

MeCAM applauds FAO, WFP, Germany partnership on diet for school children - NaijaAgroNet

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… Partnership to boost school feed programme

The Media Centre Against Malnutrition (MeCAM) has commended the duo of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) for their joint efforts  to improve the diet of school-aged children, with the support from the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).

MeCAM's National Coordinator, Mr. Remmy Nweke gave this commendation at the weekend, saying it would greatly support development of nutrition standards for school meal programmes across the world and Nigeria particularly.

Investing in school meals ‘win-win’ for West African nations – UN

NaijaAgroNet:

The United Nations food relief agency has urged governments in West Africa subregion to spend more money on school meal programmes as these investments not only contribute to children’s better future but also create local jobs around agriculture, reports NaijaAgroNet.

“It is a win-win opportunity which governments must seize,” said Abdou Dieng, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “Children enjoy healthy meals that make it more likely that they will stay in school and learn for a better future, while jobs are created and businesses develop.”

The call was made on African Day of School Feeding, annually observed on 1 March.

Increasingly, the food for the meals is sourced from smallholder farmers within the community. The idea is that home-grown school meals provide local farmers and businesses with a predictable outlet for their products, leading to more stable incomes, more investment, higher productivity and the creation of jobs for youth and women in the communities concerned.

In Burkina Faso, the introduction of yoghurt in school meals has had multiple benefits – a women’s group that collects milk locally has recently set up a processing plant for yoghurt that is now delivered to schools by young people on motorcycles.

Some governments in the region are showing a growing interest in investing more in national school meals programmes. The Government of Benin has allotted $47 million to feed 400,000 children over the course of five years in partnership with WFP, using a home-grown school meals model.

WFP’s regional school meals programme, which aims to assist about 2.7 million children this year, faces a $60 million funding gap. Without proper financing, the programme will fall short, leave many vulnerable students hungry and at risk of dropping out of school.

 Correspondent/GEE

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Nigeria breaks world record with more girls out of school – Malala

NaijaAgroNet:

The Pakistani activist, student and United Nations UN Messenger of Peace and the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala Yousafzai, has revealed that Nigeria has broken world record with more girls out of school than anywhere else in the world, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Malala made this disclosure during a working visit to Abuja and Maiduguri on Monday, lamenting that despite Nigeria riches, its record of girls child out of school remain alarming.

“Nigeria is the richest country in Africa, but has more girls out of school than any country in the world,” said Yousafzai. “Studies are clear — educating girls grows economies, reduces conflict and improves public health. For these girls and for their country’s future, Nigeria’s leaders must immediately prioritise education.”

According to UNICEF sources, over 2,295 teachers have been killed and 19,000 displaced and almost 1,400 schools destroyed since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009. Three million children in the northeast are in need of support to keep learning.

While in Maiduguri, the epicenter of the crisis in northeast Nigeria, Malala visited schoolchildren in a camp for displaced families and secondary school girls at Yerwa Government Girls School.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that while the 90 camps and camp-like settings in Maiduguri house thousands of families, more than three-quarters of the 600,000-plus displaced people are living with family, relatives or friends in host communities, placing an additional burden on local schools.

Beyond the crisis in the northeast, she noted that Nigeria already had the largest number of children out of school in the world – over 10.5 million. Among primary school-aged children not in school, only five per cent are dropouts: three-quarters of them will never step foot in a classroom, and the majority are girls.

Across West Africa, 46 per cent of primary school-aged children not in school are Nigerian. Globally, one in five children not enrolled are Nigerian.

“We will do everything in our power to make sure all children can keep learning. We believe that education – especially for girls, is the single most important way to bring hope, peace and prosperity not just for this generation, but for also for future generations,” said Mohamed Malick Fall, UNICEF’s Representative in Nigeria.

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UNICEF welcomes release of abducted 82 Chibok school girls

NaijaAgroNet:

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed the last Saturday release of some 82 Chibok school girls abducted by the Boko Haram terrorist group, reports NaijaAgroNet.

As gathered by NaijaAgroNet the girls were released in exchange of Boko Haram members arrested by the Federal Government.

Emergency Communications Specialist at UNICEF Nigeria, Harriet Dwyer said that it is heartening to know that the girls will be returning to their families who have been waiting for this day.

“They will face a long and difficult process to rebuild their lives after the indescribable horror and trauma they have suffered at the hands of Boko Haram.

“UNICEF is on standby to support the Nigerian authorities to provide the comprehensive psychosocial support and other specialized services needed. We will help reunite the girls with their families and make sure they can continue their education in a safe environment. Already staff at a UNICEF supported health clinic have been supporting immediate efforts to identify the girls and conduct medical check-ups before their onward transport.

“UNICEF calls on Boko Haram to end all grave violations against children, especially the abduction of children and the sexual abuse and forced marriage of girls.

“We commend the government for this important achievement in helping to protect children impacted by the conflict in northeast Nigeria but remain deeply concerned for the thousands of women and children still held in captivity by Boko Haram. Greater efforts must be made to bring them all to safety and home to their families.

“UNICEF has a comprehensive response to help children who have been affected by the conflict in the Lake Chad Basin and works with national authorities to support hundreds of children and women who have escaped or been released from Boko Haram. Every child is unique and requires different levels of support, so there is no standard formula or defined timeframe for these children to recover. 

UNICEF is committed to doing whatever it takes, as long as it takes to help these children recover a sense of normalcy with our available resources,” Dwyer said.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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First Bank, NCF partner to protect environment

 NaijaAgroNet

First Bank Nigeria and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) have come together tocreate awareness on the need to preserve wildlife and biodiversity among school children in Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

To give added impetus topromoting environmental sustainability, NaijaAgroNet learnt, the bank flagged off the conservation initiative recently with the planting of 120 trees at the Lagos State Civil Service Model College, Igbogbo, Ikorodu, where it also formally set up a conservation club in the school.

The Head, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability in First Bank, Mr. Ismail Omamegbe said it was part of the bank's long-term approach to sustainability and minimizing direct and indirect impacts on the environment. The conservation initiative, NaijaAgroNet gathered, lays emphasis on tree planting and students' conservation clubs which will serve as vehicles to drive environmental protection and conservation.

"This has made us focused on three priority areas which are minimize carbon footprint, carbon offsetting, conservation and preservation of wildlife and biodiversity," he said.
Mr. Omamegbe stated that First Bank's partnership with the NCF is strategic because NCF's leadership role in promoting environmental conservation and sustainable development in Nigeria tallies with the bank's desire to see the environment sustained because it is a socially responsible entity, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Dr. Joseph Onoja, NCF's Director, Technical Programmes, had earlier stated that NCF  “is pleased that Lagos State Civil Service Model College, Igbogbo, Ikorodu will be the pacesetter for the conservation clubs. Today we are going to plant 120 trees in commemoration of First Bank's 120 years in existence”.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE
 
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Investing in girls’ education, impacts child marriage - UNICEF

ITRealms:

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has identified investing in girls education as a step capable of impacting on child marriage, even as they are partnering with some other international agencies to ensure that 1 million more girls are in school by 2020, reports ITRealms. 

UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Jean Gough made this disclosure at the 2015 commemoration Day of the African Child with the theme “25 Years after the Adoption of the African Children’s Charter: Accelerating our Collective Efforts to End Child Marriage in Africa,” describing the theme as timely.

According to Gough, UNICEF is helping the government to address the challenge of ensuring all children especially girls have access to quality education, especially in Nigeria.

Lamenting that child marriage has increased in Nigeria, UNICEF noted that the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS 4) 2011, showed that there is a five per cent increase in the number of girls married before age 15.

“It was 13 per cent in 2007 and MICS 2011 indicates it is now 18 per cent,” UNICEF said. 

Child marriage, as said by UNICEF official, denies children the attainment of their human rights as children. 

“It erodes the child’s rights to life, good health, education and dignity.  Studies link child marriage to maternal mortality, school drop-out, Virginal fistula (VVF) condition and malnutrition among others,” a press statement endorsed by Geoffrey Njoku of UNICEF Nigeria read.

Equally, UNICEF, he said, believes that investments in girls education and getting more girls into school delays marriage and impacts the incidence of child marriage. 

ITRealms that the Girls’ Education Project, funded by the UK’s Department of International Development (DFID) and implemented by UNICEF, aims to get 1 million more girls into school by 2020, while at the same improving the quality of education. 

The project, UNICEF pointed is helping to train female teachers through the female teachers’ service scheme and deploying them to rural areas, where the predominance of male teachers deters many parents from sending their girls to school. 

“Another intervention under this project is the conditional cash transfer scheme provides cash to girls to help defray some school-related costs like textbooks, uniforms and others.  The project, aims to encourage parents to send their daughters to school. It is expected to reach more than 50, 000 girls this year in Sokoto and Niger States. 

“Getting girls into schooling, and remain in school is particularly important in a country where 10.5 million children are out of school, and more than 60 per cent of them are  girls. It is a win for everybody and has an impact on child marriage,’ Gough said.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) 

 

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