The Enugu State government in collaboration with United Nations Children Education Fund have established three centres for Management of Acute Malnutrition in the state.

The establishment of the centres according to the state nutrition officer, Dr Henrietta Ugwu, was part of efforts to tackle rising cases of acute malnutrition among children in the state.

Ugwu spoke Wednesday, at a one day media engagement workshop organized by Civil Society Scaling-up Nutrition in Enugu.

While she revealed that acute malnutrition was a major challenge in the state, she stated that through UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Health, the state was able to set up the CMAM centres which are located in Obollo-Afor, Abakpa Nike and Oji River.

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She said, “Children are still very much malnourished in Enugu State. Children still go to bed hungry and we have malnourished children scattered all over the local governments in the state. There is no local government that does not have malnourished children.

“Currently in Enugu State, with the assistance of the Federal Ministry of Health and UNICEF, by March this year, we were able to establish three centres where malnourished children are taken care of.

“And since these three centres were established, we have been recording numbers of malnourished children even with the intensive routine immunization that we have carried. We just came out of the second round of modified integrated medical outreach.”

On his part, Enugu State coordinator of CS-SUNN, Dr Chuka Agunwa, disclosed that the Enugu State government has accepted to work with a five-year nutrition budget line which will go a long way in addressing the issue malnutrition in the state.