Malnutrition High In Three Northern Regions
Almost forty-three per cent of children in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions are malnourished when compared to the national average of 29.3 per cent. The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, announced this when he launched an Education Trust Fund for the Christ the King school (Primary and Junior Secondary School), a deprived school at Adognia in the Kassena-Nankana District of the Upper East Region.
He stressed that childhood nutrition was very crucial to the development of children, without which their growth and development could be severely impaired.
Professor Akosa said it was against that background that the GHS and the World Food Programme (WFP) in collaboration with other stakeholders had set up supplementary feeding centres in most of the deprived schools in the Upper East Region, of which Christ the King School at Adognia was one. He entreated parents to always ensure that their children were put on proper diets so as to avoid malnutrition, and also urged them to use only iodated salt in preparing their diet since it enhanced the mental and physical development of the child.
Professor Akosa made a personal donation of ¢2 million and a set of books, school bags, and stationery to the school. In his welcoming address, the Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Mr Joseph Amankwah, indicated that health, nutrition and education were inseparable. “The three are interdependent variables and form the hallmark of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
They therefore need to be given serious attention in order to achieve these goals,” he said. He announced that with the provision of a feeding centre at the Christ the King School through the initiatives of Professor Akosa, the pupils were being fed properly, enabling them to study effectively and efficiently. He said as of last year, out of the 32 candidates from the school that sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examination, 22 got admission to senior secondary schools (SSS). Mr Amankwah said it was for this reason that the fund was set up to cater for the school children especially those at the SSS level.
Professor Akosa said it was against that background that the GHS and the World Food Programme (WFP) in collaboration with other stakeholders had set up supplementary feeding centres in most of the deprived schools in the Upper East Region, of which Christ the King School at Adognia was one. He entreated parents to always ensure that their children were put on proper diets so as to avoid malnutrition, and also urged them to use only iodated salt in preparing their diet since it enhanced the mental and physical development of the child.
Professor Akosa made a personal donation of ¢2 million and a set of books, school bags, and stationery to the school. In his welcoming address, the Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Mr Joseph Amankwah, indicated that health, nutrition and education were inseparable. “The three are interdependent variables and form the hallmark of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
They therefore need to be given serious attention in order to achieve these goals,” he said. He announced that with the provision of a feeding centre at the Christ the King School through the initiatives of Professor Akosa, the pupils were being fed properly, enabling them to study effectively and efficiently. He said as of last year, out of the 32 candidates from the school that sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examination, 22 got admission to senior secondary schools (SSS). Mr Amankwah said it was for this reason that the fund was set up to cater for the school children especially those at the SSS level.
