At least 76,000 children under five years are set to benefit from a five year programme aimed at fighting malnutrition and stunting among children. 

The programme which was launched last Friday in Mukingo Sector, Nyanza District.

The programme which is supported by USAID, will be implemented by FXB Rwanda, a local NGO, across all 10 sectors of Nyanza District.

Speaking during the launch of the programme, FXB Rwanda Executive Director, Emmanuel Habyarimana said, "The programme intends to help every child in Nyanza to grow healthy through good nutrition and proper hygiene.”

The launch was marked by cultivation of vegetables in a model garden in Mukingo Sector and the provision of balanced diet to children in the area.

Habyarimana said the programme is in line with the government’s Community Based Nutrition Programmes (CBNP) spearheaded by the Ministry of Health, to empower the communities to eliminate malnutrition.

He said they have already drawn the district plan to systematically address the malnutrition issue in the entire district.

"We want all the children [in Nyanza] to undergo a compulsory weighing at least once a month this year. This exercise will include children from both well-off and vulnerable families,” he said.

"FXB uses its expertise to analyse the results to categorise children in every village depending on their state of nourishment.

Green is the category for those with good nutrition, yellow for those slightly malnourished and red for the severely malnourished.”

He said that those in the red zone would be referred to health centres for relevant care.

He added that each family should have a vegetable garden.

Habyarimana said that under the programme, they want to ensure that over 50,000 households have toilets and functional tip–taps (locally known as kandagira ukarabe).

The Nyanza District Acting Mayor, Enoch Nkurunziza said, the problems of malnutrition and poor hygiene do not require a lot of resources to address, rather the commitment by local government, the community health workers and the entire community in collaboration with development partners like FXB.

"The government has availed clean water to people, which can be used to solve the problem of poor hygiene.

The foods that are needed to curb malnutrition are those we can grow locally. What we need is commitment to ensure those issues get solved,” he noted.

Angelique Mushimiyimana, a mother of six from Mukingo Sector said they have started learning from the community health workers about recipes of balanced and nutritious meals. She however expressed concern that they sometimes lack means to afford such diet.

"We hope this programme will empower us to access the nutritious and balanced diet for us and our children,” she said.

About 38 per cent of children in the country are stunted according to the Rwanda Demographic Health Survey (RDHS) 2014/2015.

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