Two Nollywood stars, Ali Nuhu and Rahma Sadau, who are also United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Champions have joined the campaign to combat the scourge of malnutrition ravaging parts of Katsina State.
A recent UNICEF report suggests that some 240,000 children across the 34 Local Government Areas of Katsina, aged between 0-5 years, suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).
Some afflicted children who survive the ailment eventually endure the stunted growth phenomenon.
“The situation is pathetic and we find it difficult to believe that we have this kind of thing in Nigeria,” Ali Nuhu told a press conference in Katsina, after two days of facility tour of health centres managing some of the SAM cases.”
He said that all hands must be on deck to reverse the trend and urged parents to patronize health facilities as well as ensure their wards receive routine immunization against childhood killer diseases.
For Rahmat Sadau, the malnutrition issue in Katsina may only be comparable to the fiction the actors roll out in their Nollywood films, noting however that, “it’s unbelievable but we saw the children and their mothers with our eyes.
“I am delighted to partner with UNICEF in order to lend my voice to the situation,” she said.
The visit was part of the UNICEF high-level advocacy mission to Katsina during which it handed over 7,000 cartons of Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF) to the Katsina State government for treatment of some of the SAM cases in the area.
