Punjab Planning & Development Department in collaboration with Nutrition Section/SUN Secretariat Ministry of Planning Development & Reform and Human Development Foundation jointly organized Provincial Launch (Punjab) of a Mass Awareness Campaign "Umeed Say Aagay" (Promoting Mother and Child Wellness in the First Thousand Days & Beyond) here on Tuesday as more than 400,000 mothers and children die each year due to malnutrition in the country.
Addressing the launching ceremony, Provincial Secretary P&D Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that Punjab Government remains committed towards making nutrition a priority in the province.
All provincial governments as well as the Federal Government have been making efforts in devising adequate measures to overcome the nutrition based hurdles.
Saleem Masih Chief Health & Nutrition/ SUN Focal Person Punjab, said that nutrition has been a priority agenda item for the Punjab Government and the mutli-sectoral nutrition center had been established to ensure that all nutrition related interventions stay on track to end the prevailing endemic of malnutrition in the province. Malnutrition is a multi-faceted issue, contributed by a number of factors, including health, education, water, sanitation, hygiene, population planning, and food intake. He admitted that the health status of the population is low in Punjab, particularly among women and children, with half of the children aged between 12-23 months still not fully immunized.
Aslam Shaheen Chief Nutrition/ SUN Focal Person thanked the HDF and SUN Movement collective efforts to improve nutrition situation. He hoped that the awareness campaign will go a long way to overcoming malnutrition in Pakistan and saving huge losses in the economy due to malnutrition.
Saeed Ul Hassan, Executive Director HDF said the objective of the campaign is to create mass awareness in Pakistan about the importance of healthy nutrition practices for mother and children in the first 1000 days through youth led social movement and to promote early initiation and exclusive breast feeding up to six months and continued breast feeding up to two years in addition to age appropriate complementary feeding to achieve optimal growth, cognitive development and health for young children.
Dr. Rameeza Kalim, Head of Preventive Pediatrics, Fatima Jinnah Medical University & Cecilia Garzon, Head of Nutrition, World Food Programme talked about the importance of the First 1000 days of the new born and how focusing on these days can prevent a child from a stunted life which has life lasting consequences including poor cognitive ability, poor school performance, low productivity as adults and hence low future earnings.
Large number of government officials, development partners, civil society representative, academia, and media personnel from Punjab and Islamabad attended the ceremony.
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