The Lagos state government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are targeting three million children under the age of five, to benefit from this year’s first round of the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW), a move to tackle malnutrition, improve child survival and expand access to preventive healthcare.
Speaking at the official flag-off of the campaign in Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Area on Monday, Celine Lafoucriere, chief of UNICEF’s Lagos Office, said the week-long exercise would deliver essential nutrition and maternal health services to children and pregnant women across the state.
According to Lafoucriere, healthcare workers will administer Vitamin A supplements to strengthen children’s immunity and protect their eyesight, provide deworming tablets for eligible children, screen babies for malnutrition and distribute micronutrient supplements to pregnant women.
“Lagos has about three million children under the age of five. Three million children whose brains are forming, whose bones are growing and whose bodies need the right food and the right care now, not next year,” she said.
She said UNICEF supplied the Vitamin A capsules and micronutrient supplements for the campaign while supporting community mobilisation and field monitoring to ensure children are reached.
