Some CSO members addressing the women at the Malam Sidi CMAM centre.
William Attah, Gombe
As cases of malnourished children continue to rise in Gombe State, the State Government has intervened by establishing more Centres for the treatment of Severe Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) to confront the challenge.
Before now, the CMAM were only operational in Gombe, Dukku, Nafada and Kaltungo Local Government Areas where treatment also include free distribution of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (FUTF) to affected children.
However, the upsurge in the search for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition by most parents for their children has made the State Government to establish new ones in Akko and Kwami Local Government areas leaving out five others as revealed by our correspondent.
During a visit to Malam Sidi town of Kwami Local Government Area where one of the CMAM centres was recently established, women were seen trooping into the facility to access services for the treatment of the scourge that has remained a serious challenge to the Gombe State Government.
According to the Nutrition focal person for Kwami Local Government Area, Jamilatu Ahmed Waklili, in just a little over four weeks when the centre commenced activities, they received 50 clients but that as at the day of our visit, they were expecting no fewer than 350 parents coming with their malnourished children to access the services for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition.
She, however, stated that they are faced with some challenges which include lack of enough thermometers, timers, infant weighing scales as well as lack of a conducive environment for the comfort of the clients.
She said, “we don’t have much thermometers, timers, infant weighing scales and comfortable seats for the clients. We need more staff as we have only five that are trained and most times we stand to do our work”.
Despite the challenges faced at the facility, she said, she along with the clients were happy for the establishment of the centre in Malam Sidi and some others across Kwami Local Government Area.
She said, ” we were referring uncountable number of clients to Gombe, but with the commencement of this programme here, I am particularly happy as well as the clients who are coming from their various communities”.
The Gombe State Government had recently released the sum of N25 million out of the approved N75 million allocation to tackle malnutrition and recent investigation has shown that the amount was able to procure 1,549 cartons of the RUTF.
Investigation has also revealed that there are only about 90 cartons of the RUTF left in the State signaling some danger in the next two weeks when the stock is expected to have finished.
A coalition of Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, and media had in a save our soul (SOS) visit to the Gombe State Ministry of Health called on the ministry to facilitate the release of the remaining N50 million to save an impending malnutrition crisis after two weeks.
