By Asmau Ahmad
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said 120 health workers in Jigawa are undergoing training on modern communication skills and data collection on malnutrition.
The Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF field office, Bauchi, Philomena Irene, said this at the flag-off of the five-day training in Dutse, the state capital.
Newsmen report that the training, which began on September 5, would end on September 10.
Irene said the exercise was designed to expose the participants to modern communication skills and data collection methods on malnutrition, and infant and young child feeding practice.
She said that the beneficiaries would be exposed to the use of software that would help them collect data on Severe Acute Malnutrition Issues in the state.
“This is the software that helps health workers working on nutritional issue to collect data on severe acute malnutrition and infant and young child feeding practice as soon as they finish providing services.
“This software, will through an SMS, enable them to enter data on how many children they’ve reached, how many are on admission, how many are discharged and how many are referred to stabilization centres.
“It will also tell us how many cartons of Ready-To-Use-Therapeutic-Food (RUTF) they have given to malnourished children as well as how many workers were on duty,” she explained.
The specialist said that the data would enable UNICEF make real-time decision on proper fund allocation and logistics for the provision of RUTF and staff deployment.
According to her, the participants have been drawn from 12 local government areas in the state, where the Community Management Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) program is being implemented.
The local government councils are: Birnin kudu, Kiyawa, Birniwa, Jahun, Maigatari, Babura, Kaugama, Gwaram, Kazaure, Gwiwa, Roni and Yankwashi.
Irene said the trainees were selected from the Outpatient Therapeutic Centres (OTPs) in Primary Health Care Centres (PHCs) and Health Posts of the benefiting LGAs.
She described acute malnutrition as a life threatening condition, and urged participants to be sending weekly data, stocks-outs reports and challenges facing the programme in their areas.
The exercise was part of the comprehensive campaign to facilitate the use of data, for decision making.
