The Agricultural Media Resources and Extension Centre (AMREC) of the University, has organised a community-based capacity building workshop on “Nutrition and Health Education for Farm-families” in FUNAAB neighbouring villages, to create awareness and improve nutritional status of the rural populace.
At the occasion, the Director of AMREC, Professor Victor Olowe, appreciated the Vice-Chancellor Professor Olusola Oyewole, for his unflinching support towards the centre’s programmes as well as the parents for allowing the workshop to take place at the Agbede village, near FUNAAB, while imploring the participants to be attentive and fully utilise the information and knowledge gained from the programme for the betterment of farm-families.
The Project Coordinator, Professor Grace Sokoya, said that the workshop was put together by the Gender Issues and Youth Development (GIYD) Unit of AMREC, as part of its mandate in facilitating the participatory capabilities of women, farm-families and secondary school youths in the University mandate area (Southwest Nigeria), in a bid to promote the development of the farmers, their families, their communities, and the nation at large. She highlighted the objectives of the workshop to include: creating awareness in farm-families and rural teachers on benefits of good health and nutritional practices towards enhancing optimum health of farm-families in general and school children in particular.
Others are: pointing-out the causes and prevention of sudden deaths across the life span; creating nutritional awareness and promotion of healthy nutritional habits among farm-families; promoting behavioural changes on hygienic practices and strategies to attaining optimum growth; development of school children; and encouraging peer-to-peer education among school children alongside their parents. Professor Sokoya added further that participants were expected from nine villages and that when a female is educated, generations have been empowered. She said the workshop would also assist the participants to take good care of the children, noting that what was expected of them was to make the children healthier, in order to reduce the number of times they would visit the hospital. She appealed to the parents to endeavour to give the best food to their children.
Dr. Modupe Oladejo-Alghazal in her presentation titled, “Causes and Prevention of Sudden Deaths in Farm-families”, across the life span (childhood illness, gyneacological emergencies, communicable and non-communicable diseases), advised the women-folk to always eat balanced diet, rest, avoid heavy work, practice family planning, ante-natal care, ensure child delivery at standard hospitals and sleeping under treated insecticide nets, identifying the causes of sudden death to include: bleeding, hypertension in pregnancy, infection in pregnancy, obstructed labour, malaria and anaemia while common diseases include measles, dysentery, polio, chicken pox, tuberculosis and malaria. She also implored the participants to avoid indiscriminate defecation, eat fresh fruits, adopt exclusive breast feeding (for six months for the infant) and wash their hands at all times, using soap after visiting the toilet and before cooking.
In another presentation titled, “Farm-families’ Nutritional Awareness and Hygienic Practices as Strategies to Enhance Optimum Growth and Development of School Children’’, Dr. Catherine Oladoyinbo appealed to parents to ensure that they live in clean and healthy environment in the course of preparing their food while listing out the benefits of eating balanced diet and at the right proportion to include; rapid growth, increased immunity from diseases and infections, sharp brain development and longevity of life. Other highlights of the programme include the practical teaching of participants on the different ways of carrying out medical check-up and preparing healthy foods.