‘Health of women, children in N’East deplorable’

PARTICIPANTS at workshop in Jalingo, Taraba State has said the health of women and children in the North-East zone has remained pathetic.

They hinged a better future for them on proper nutrition and access to affordable medical services.

The forum also observed that Nigeria could only achieve a healthy populace by improving on maternal, neonatal and child-health (MNCH) services.

The participants also advised the country’s leaders to evolve policies that would encourage better maternal nutrition, create awareness and identify potential solutions to the myriad of problems facing pregnant women.

Leader of Common Heritage Foundation, Prof. Oladele Akogun, the organisers of the workshop in collaboration with the School of Public Health, Emory University of the United States and the state’s Ministry of Health, canvassed sustainable advocacy for nutrition for women.

Two of the resource persons, Prof. Debora McFarland and Prof. Aimee Web-Girard, asserted that the status of “women’s health is relatively poor in the North-East” and called for better strategies to halt the trend.

The Guardian learnt that the foundation had carried out study, which showed that religion biases, social and economic deprivations were militating against pregnant women’s ability to meet required nutritional intake.