The future of the Gushegu
District of the Northern
Region is under serious
threat, as the majority of its
children between one and
five years, are being hit by
the high incidence of a form
of malnourishment, popularly
known in Ghana as
"Kwashiokor".
A four-day working visit to
the district by the Northern
Regional Bureau of The
Chronicle, uncovered that
one out of every three
children under five is
malnourished in the District,
due to the inability of
parents to provide the right
quality of nutritious meals to
their children, after six
months of exclusive
breastfeeding.
The paper discovered that
children of about two to
three years are still being
breastfed by their mothers
without any supplementary
food, and the few that are
not being breastfed, are
given carbohydrate foods
leading to abnormal growth.
According to our information,
the Gushegu, Karaga, Tolon-
Kumbungu and Savelugu-
Nanton districts, in that
order, have the highest
cases of Kwashiokor, as a
result of their superstitious
and cultural beliefs.
The parents of some of the
malnourished children told
The Chronicle that they were
made to believe that until
they give birth to another,
their first child must continue
to enjoy the mother's
breastmilk.
Again, they were told not to
feed children under the age
of five with eggs or any food
that contains meat, otherwise
they would become thieves in
their adulthood.
The majority of them also
believe that malnourishment
is a serious curse which
cannot be revoked, and thus
do not see the need to
report such cases to the
health centres. One Madam
Fulera Yakubu, a farmer at
Nawugu in the Gushegu
District, and mother of one of
the malnourished children,
Hardi Yakubu, said she lost
her first child to the same
sickness in 2006.
Even though she had made
efforts to send Hardi to the
hospital to avoid a re-
occurrence, most people in
the village, including her
husband, had threatened to
deal with her if anything
should happen to the child at
the hospital.
Unfortunately, the husband,
Yakubu Imoro, also a farmer,
was not around to answer
some questions from this
reporter.
However, The Chronicle
made a surprise visit to one
nutrition centre in Gushegu
called Neesim Nutrition
Centre, where serious
efforts are being made by
Reverend Rahaman Yakubu,
and his wife Nelleka Yakubu
from Holland, to provide free
treatment for the large
number of children suffering
from "Kwashiokor".
The centre is currently
taking care of about twenty-
two malnourished children, in
partnership with Project
Share, a non-governmental
organisation (NGO).
The Centre was established
in September 2009, and has
already rehabilitated over 40
children who were close to
early deaths.
Some of these children, the
paper gathered, are mostly
transferred from the
Gushegu Government
Hospital.
However, some of them who
were brought in, about a
week before the paper's
visit, were in critical
condition, while others were
fast recovering.
Malnourished children usually
loose appetite, suffer
diarrhoea, have skin burns
due to lack of oil in their
skin, have emaciated bodies
and very weak legs, and
could as well die at any time
if immediate attention is not
given to nourishing them.
Most of the nursing mothers
frequently expose the
children to environmental
hazards, leading to
diarrhoea, cholera and
malaria infections which
mostly kill them.
The Proprietor of the Neesim
Nutrition Centre, Mrs. Rev
Nelleka Yakubu, disclosed
that even though the centre
was offering free treatment
to the affected children,
parents were still not willing
to hand over their children.
She said it took the
management of the centre a
hell of time to persuade the
communities to seek
treatment for the children,
due to their cultural and
superstitious beliefs on the
sickness.
She confirmed that one out of
every three child under five
years in the district was
malnourished. Mrs. Yakubu
said the situation was not
only worrying, but also a
threat to the future of the
district.
The Director of Project
Share, Reverend Rahama
Yakubu, said the disease
had been rampant in
Gushegu because of
superstitious belief, and
called for serious education
on the disease. According to
him, instead of seeking
expert or nutritionist advice,
most of the parents rather
resort to herbal means.
Rev. Yakubu however
appealed to other local and
international NGOs to
support the Neesim Nutrition
Centre in diverse ways, to
sustain its good work.
The District Chief Executive
(DCE) for Gushegu, Alhassan
Fuseini, who led this paper
to the Neesim Nutrition
Centre, sympathised with the
children who were
undergoing such pains
through no fault of theirs.
He admitted that the district
had a lot of malnourished
children, and pledged the
assembly's support to the
management of the Centre to
sustain their free treatment.
Topic: Ghana : One out of three children suffers kwasiokor in Gushegu (Read 2220 times)
