From Maduabuchi Nmeribeh, Kano
Hajiya Hawa Jaffar, a nursing mother, is among the four wives of Malam Musa Jaffar, a Hausa-Fulani farmer, with 20 children. Musa’s children are among the over 5000 children that reside in Kau-Kau-Fulani community in Bichi Local Government Area, Bichi Emirate, Kano state. Though they live in a settlement bereft of basic social amenities cum infrastructural facilities, the children, naturally trained in farming and livestock rearing display joy and contentment derived from their own green world and the limits it offers them.
Their joy and that of their families, however, is increased by the Dietry Diversity Modelling Pilot Project (DDMPP) introduced by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with Kano state government and a Non Governmental Organization (NGO), Society for Women Development and Empowerment.
Indeed, Hajiya Hawa, a member of the Kau-Kau Community Support Group of the DDMPP, and a beneficiary of the project, could not hide her joy when she took our Correspondent to a cluster garden at her backyard where she cultivated vegetables and fruits donated to her freely by UNICEF to enable her get enough nutritious food for her child who is between the age of six and 23 months.
“I am very happy not only as a beneficiary of this project, but as one of the members of the women support group who are teaching other nursing mothers on how to maintain these cluster gardens and cultivate enough nutritious vegetables and fruits to feed our babies immediately after the compulsory six months exclusive breastfeeding.
“Before the introduction of this UNICEF Project, we found it difficult to get enough nutritious food and other supplements for our children, but with the training and resources given to us as a result of this project, we no longer have problem feeding our children between the ages of six and 23 months.
“UNICEF provided us with improved seedlings and vegetables to plant. They also provided us other resources to ensure that the crops are healthy. We were also given chicks, hens and goats to produce eggs, meat and milk for the consumption of our children. This is really helping us a lot. As you can see, our babies are very healthy simply because we have been taught how to prepare these vegetables and fruits as recepies for the consumption of these children between the ages of six and 23 months.
“I must also tell you that this initiative has brought inexplicable joy in my family because I get most of the things I needed to supplement the food of the breastfeeding child from the cluster garden. My husband is also happy that I no longer disturb him so much for food supplement as it used to be when we were not into this cluster garden farming.”
Hajiya Hawa, however, expressed worry that she and other beneficiaries within the community face a serious challenge posed by lack of water and fertilizer to enable the vegetables and fruits grow very well.
“As you can see, we live in a dry settlement. The water lodge is very far away from us. When it is dry season, we suffer alot trekking very long distances to fetch water for the garden. This is a serious challenge. We also do not have access to fertilizer. We use livestock waste as manure for the gardens. For us and our cluster garden to survive, we need a reliable source of water in this community. We also need support that will enable us have access to fertilizer. We are, however, grateful to UNICEF for bringing succour to nursing mothers in this community.”
The Nutrition Specialist for UNICEF Kano Field Office, Mrs. Abigail Nyam, told journalists, on Thursday, that the Dietry Diversity Modelling Pilot Project is the first of its kind in Nigeria. She said for now, the project is being run in 44 communities in Bichi Local Government Area and 28 communities in Sumaila Local Government Area of Kano state, with a long-term plan to spread the project across the 44 Local Government Area in Kano state, and indeed, across all the 36 states in the country, including Abuja.
She further added that Kano was targeted because of its status as the state with the highest number of malnourished under-five children in the country.
According to her, “this is a pilot project that commenced in 2018. It is a modelling project. We are working with women who have children between the ages of six and 23 months. We have them in Support Groups made of 15 women each. We provide them with the improved seedlings of vegetables, varieties of spinatch and fruits including mango, pawpaw and carrots. We also teach them hygiene and recepie, as well as how to prepare the food for the children.
“We also introduce to them the rearing of animals and livestock to ensure animal protein and to also ensure that they have enough milk to give to the children. We provide three goats to each of the women support group—one male and two female goats so that when they keep on reproducing, the women can share the livestocks among themselves. The idea is for them to get milk directly from the livestocks. We also distributed chicks and hens to the women to produce eggs majorly for the consumption of their children between the ages of six and 23 months.”
The UNICEF also provided special feeding bawls and spoons for the women to feed their children. Mrs. Nyam said the distribution of the specially designed bawls and spoons strictly made for the supplementary feeding of the breastfeeding children was to ensure quality, density and adequacy of the nutrients in the food.
She also noted that officials from the state Ministry of Agriculture and volunteers from the partnering NGO and community leaders also help towards ensuring that the project remain a success.
Our Correspondent visited some of the project’s Women Support Groups and flourishing cluster-backyard gardens in Kau-Kau and Yandutse communities, all in Bichi Local Government Area of Kano state.
