The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Jean Gough

  • More than five million newborn babies deprived of nutrients – UNICEF

    More than five million newborn babies deprived of nutrients – UNICEF

    …says Exclusive breastfeeding nourishes, reduces risk of newborn deaths

    The United Nation Agency for Children (UNICEF) has said that more than five million newborns in Nigeria are deprived of essential nutrients and antibodies that protect them from disease and death as they are not being exclusively breastfed.

    The united Nation Agency for Children made the disclosure yesterday on the occasion to marks World Breastfeeding Week.

    According to the agemcy, only 25 per cent of the approximate 7 million children born in Nigeria every year, according to the 2014 National Nutrition and Health Survey are exclusively breastfed from 0-6 months of age.

    “We know that the pressure to give water to newborns in addition to breast milk is high. But the stomach of a baby is so small it can barely hold 60 millilitres of liquid and when it is filled with water, it leaves no room for breast milk and its life sustaining nutrients,” said Arjan de Wagt, UNICEF Nigeria Chief of Nutrition. “Babies who are fed nothing but breastmilk from the moment they are born until they are six months old grow and develop better. Breast milk gives a child a head start in life and a chance to fight child malnutrition later in life.”

    Nigeria is making progress in exclusive breastfeeding very slowly. Over ten years, Nigeria has increased its exclusive breastfeeding rate from 12 per cent to only 25 per cent.  By comparison, in 1994, both Ghana and Nigeria had both exclusive breastfeeding rates of 7.4, but by 2013 Ghana had moved up to 63 per cent.

    Nigeria’s lack of progress in exclusive breastfeeding denies millions of newborns in Nigeria the benefits of breast milk. Research shows that an exclusively breastfed child is 14 times less likely to die in the first six months than a non-breastfed child and that breastfeeding drastically reduces deaths from acute respiratory infection and diarrhoea; two major child killer diseases.

    The National Food and Nutrition policy 2014- 2019 has a strong exclusive breastfeeding component and while UNICEF has welcomed the policy it urges the Government of Nigeria to include a budget line for nutrition in the health sector budget and a timely release of budget for immediate programming.

    UNICEF also commends the initiative of the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, that was announced in July to address child malnutrition and recommends that exclusive breastfeeding should be a strong component of her initiative.

    “Lack of exclusive breastfeeding is implicated in the current high rate of child malnutrition in Nigeria,’ noted Jean Gough, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria. “Exclusive breastfeeding is free and breast milk is readily available, so exclusive breastfeeding should be our first strategy in fighting child malnutrition,’ she noted.

  • Children in Nigeria’s northeast may die of malnutrition – UN

    Tens of thousands of children in northeast Nigeria will die of malnutrition this year unless they receive treatment soon, the United Nations said on Friday after reaching areas of the country previously cut off from aid by Boko Haram violence.

    Over the last year Nigeria’s army, aided by troops from neighbouring countries, recaptured most of the territory that was lost to the militant group, which has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in the northeast.

    “Improving security has enabled humanitarians to access areas that were previously cut off,” Reuters quoted Munir Safieldin, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, as saying in a statement.

    “The conditions we are seeing there are devastating.”

    The conflict, which has killed more than 15,000 people and uprooted 2.4 million in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, has also pushed food insecurity and malnutrition to emergency levels in northeast Nigeria, according to the Nigerian government.

    More than a half a million people need urgent food aid, as the violence has hit farming, disrupted markets and driven up food prices, several UN agencies said in a joint statement.

    Almost 250,000 children under the age of five in Borno State will suffer from malnutrition this year, said Jean Gough, Nigeria representative for the UN children’s agency UNICEF.

    “Unless we reach these children with treatment, one in five of them will die,” she said. “We cannot allow that to happen.”

  • Fate of Chibok girls remains unknown says UN

    Fate of Chibok girls remains unknown says UN

    The United Nations {UN} on Friday says the plight of 219 Chibok schoolgirls who were abducted two years ago is a major conflict that is affecting the North-Eastern communities.

    Fatma Samoura UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria said that up to 7,000 women and girls might be living in abduction and sex slavery.

    “Humanitarian agencies are concerned that two years have passed, and still the fate of the Chibok girls and the many, many other abductees is unknown,” she said.

    The statement quoted Samoura as saying that the abducted girls had suffered so much at the hands of their captors as they had been on forced recruitment, forced marriage, sexual slavery and rape, and have been used to carry bombs.

    “Between 2,000 and 7,000 women and girls are living in abduction and sex slavery,” said Jean Gough, Country Representative of the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.

    Women and girls, who have escaped Boko Haram have reported undergoing a systematic training programme to train them as bombers, according to UNICEF.

    It said that 85 per cent of the suicide attacks by women globally in 2014 were in Nigeria.

    In May 2015, it was reported that children had been used to perpetrate three-quarters of all suicide attacks in Nigeria since 2014.

    Many of the bombers had been brainwashed or coerced.

    As the Nigerian military recaptures territory from Boko Haram, abducted women and girls are being recovered.

    Over and above the horrific trauma of sexual violence these girls experienced during their captivity, many are now facing rejection by their families and communities, because of their association with Boko Haram.

    “You are a Boko Haram wife, don’t come near us,” one girl reported being told.

    “Effective rehabilitation for these women and girls is vital, as they rebuild their lives,’’ the statement said.

     

    The UN notes that children have suffered disproportionately as a result of the conflict.

    The Chibok abduction was not an isolated incident.

    In November 2014, 300 children were abducted from a school in Damasak, Borno, and are still missing.

    A UNICEF report, released earlier this week, states that 1.3 million children have been displaced by the conflict across the Lake Chad Basin, almost a million of whom are in Nigeria.

    Similarly, Human Rights Watch House reported that 1 million children had lost access to education.

    “The abducted Chibok girls have become a symbol for every girl that has gone missing at the hands of Boko Haram, and every girl who insists on practicing her right to education,” said Munir Safieldin, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria.

    The UN says more need to be done by the Nigerian government and the international community to keep them safe from the horrors other women and girls have endured.

    Safe schools are a good start, but safe roads and safe homes are also needed, it says.

  • UNICEF to collaborate with North to bring one million girls back to school

    UNICEF to collaborate with North to bring one million girls back to school

    The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative to Nigeria, Ms. Jean Gough, says the organisation will collaborate with State Governments in the North to bring one million girls back to school in seven years.

    Jean spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos.

    She listed states that would benefit from the seven-year girl-child education initiative as Sokoto, Zamfara, Niger, Kastina and Bauchi.

    “We have observed a widening gap between the education of boys in the South and girls in the North. Therefore, in 2014, we are to ensure that in the next seven years, one million girls in the northern part of Nigeria come back to school.

    “We will be working through the various education systems of our partners to ensure that all girls in these states return to school,” she said.

    Jean said the project was aimed at ensuring that boys and girls had equal access to education.

     

    According to her, the organisation plans to create new offices in Borno, Kastina and Sokoto states to facilitate the execution of the programme.