By Willy Chowoo
In Kampala.
Despite many interventions to save lives of mothers dying while giving births in Uganda, the issue of under-nutrition still stands a big burden to this country.
Malnutrition in Uganda is a consequence of limited or inadequate preventive and / or corrective actions.
It is a leading contributor towards child morbidity and mortality, malnourished children living with HIV are five times more likely to die before their 2nd birthday compared to non-infected children according to the world food program report, 2011.
Namugumya Brenda, an official from Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project (FANTA III) says about 23% of women in reproductive age in Uganda suffer from lack of blood during pregnancy.
Namugumya says the study they conducted in the year 2011 showed that women who suffer from lack of blood constitute 4 of the 16 women who die every day.
Toko Mansur,a regional Nutritionist with Jinja Regional hospital says they receive on average 100 cases of malnutrition in the hospital every month.
Toko attributed the high case to late or poor health seeking behaviour, poor family planning, poor community and facility linkage among others.
He calls for promotion of child spacing among families to help to reduce malnutrition.
They were speaking to Journalists during a workshop on Production for Improved Nutrition project PIN at Golf Course Hotel, Kampala on Wednesday.
Undernutrition leads to acute malnutrition or chronic stunting and overnutrtition leads to overweight and obesity.
Namugumya says in children, stunting affects the brain development of children.
The same study also indicates that 2.8 million Ugandans had stunted growth and atleast 54% of Uganda adult population had stunted during their childhood.
It also shows that 33% of children below the age of 24 months are stunted/ underweighed , 49% of the population lack blood or suffered from anemia and in women it constitute 30% of deaths that occur during child births, while 38 % suffer from Vitamin A deficiency.
FANTA has been working to improve the health and well-being of vulnerable individuals, families, and communities in developing countries by strengthening food security and nutrition policies, programs, and systems.
Currently, RECO Industries Ltd is implementing a five year USAID Uganda Production for Improved Nutrition project PIN. The project will run up to 2017
They produce Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) and Fortified Blended Foods to treat malnutrition among the vulnerable children, Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and people living with HIV/Aids.
These are foods designed for specific, nutritionally therapeutic purposes as a sign of supplement; they are high energy, lipid spreads used for treatment of server acute malnutrition which provides protein, fats vitamins and minerals.
Brian Rwabogo, the Chief of Party USAID-PIN Project says the project is enrolled in 62 districts and they are working with 109 health facilities across the country. He says they treat between 26000-30000 malnourished people every year.
Dr. Elizabeth Madraa, a Fortification/Policy Adviser SPRING Uganda emphasizes that RUFT says People Living with HIV/AIDS PLWHA are severely malnourished which needed food stuff like RUFTs.
Some of the raw materials used to make RUFTs include peanut, milk powder, premix, vegetable oil, sugar and whey powder.
THE NILE NETWORK 