By HOPE BWALYA –
TWO hundred families in Lusaka’s Kuku and Misisi townships have received assistance from the First Lady’s Esther Lungu Foundation to help them fight malnutrition at household level.
The Foundation aided the families with goods worth K51,000.
Ms Lungu said fighting malnutrition at household level was vital in breeding a nationwide fight against the disease and ensuring a healthy nation.
The donation was meant to supplement the efforts being made by the Misisi Community Nutrition Outreach Programme (MCNOP), which was born out of a research on malnutrition from the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
Ms Lungu said combating malnutrition at household level ensured personal involvement, which provided an environment for a strengthened fight against malnutrition and other diseases.

• FIRST Lady Esther Lungu admires a baby during a tour and handover of food hampers to beneficiaries at Misissi Health Outreach Center at St.Lawrence Parish in Kamwala South, Lusaka. Picture by KACHA MIYOBA/ZANIS

“Malnutrition is best managed at household level, it should start at personal level. Let us all work together to end malnutrition. The research has shown the value of using community members to take charge of their own health,” the First Lady said.
The goods comprised 25kg mealie meal bags, 20kg bags of rice, 5kg bags of beans, two-litre containers of cooking oil bottles, 1kg bags of salt and packs of biscuits.
MCNOP project coordinator Beatrice Amadi said the programme had screened about 180,000 children for malnutrition.
Dr Amadi said more than 1,900 children had been enrolled for the malnutrition programme, which had reduced congestion in neighbouring health centres like Kanyama and Chawama health centres.
Center for Diseases Control (CDC) representative Margo Riggs said the number of children enrolled for the programme was encouraging, hence the need to extend it to other areas in the country with high levels of malnutrition.
Chawama Member of Parliament Lawrence Sichalwe said malnutrition and stunting was high among many communities, hence concerted efforts were needed to fight it.
Mr Sichalwe said such was as a result of poverty, lack of knowledge and the disease burden which had ravaged many communities.