Federal Government Flags Off Deworming Of 10m Children On School-Feeding Programme
Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq
The Federal government through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and Federal Ministry of Health has flagged off the deworming exercise of 10 million children under the school homegrown feeding programme.
The Minister, Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, on Wednesday, declared the exercise open at a training for federal and zonal officers held in Kano.
Represented by the Special Assistant to the President on National Investment Programme, Muhammad Nasiru Mahmoud, the minister said while Nigeria records over 10 million beneficiaries across the 36 states, a number of 1,225,804 pupils in Kano are currently under the homegrown school feeding programme aimed at addressing the socio-economic imbalance in Nigeria through the National School Homegrown Feeding Programme.
She said with children prone to infections, especially parasites, no matter how well a child is fed, the ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Health came up with the initiative to deworm all the children under school feeding to ensure the effectiveness of the programme.
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On his part, the focal person, National Social Investment Programme in Kano, Baba Aminu Zubair, pointed out that at the beginning of the programme, the number of enrollment was not so high because people were not aware but, when people saw the benefit, the numbers had increased in multitude.
“In addition, the state government is also feeding from primary four to six in the schools. From the last school census we had, we have an increase of over 700,000 pupils which currently we are working with the National Bureau for Statistics to see that this number has been translated into the programme so that they will also benefit,” he said.