By Magnus Emuji / Rukevwe Adugbo
The Permanent Secretary, Delta State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Augustine Oghoro has said that the partnership bond between the state government and UNICEF was yielding tremendous success and would be sustained.
Oghoro stated this in Asaba while declaring open a -one day capacity building workshop on school based Organic Farms and Gardens organised by Delta State Committee on Food and Nutrition in collaboration with the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education for 30 agricultural Science teachers drawn from 30 public schools across the state.
He commended the ingenuity of UNICEF for the sponsorship of the workshop as well as its notion for people to always eat the right amount of nutrients in food meals , adding that educating teachers on the importance of food nutrition was a critical step towards achieving UNICEF goals.
Oghoro, who recalled that the effective collaboration with UNICEF had resulted in several projects and programmes sponsored by it in the state such as the fight against malnutrition and end open defecation among others .
The Permanent Secretary advised the trainees to channel their energies and knowledge gained the establishment of school based Organic Farms and Gardens, explaining that the training would be of immense benefits for school authorities to create food and generate income for their schools.
Earlier in a goodwill message, the Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Economic Planning, Mr. Frank Isume who was represented by the Directior of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), Mrs. Martina Amromanoh said that the State Food and Nutrition committee was committed to realising its terms of reference and stressed on the need for every individual to embrace effective food and nutrition.
For his part, the Secretary of Delta State Committee on Food and Nutrition, Mr. Benson Etchie added that the creation of the committee at the national level was as a result of the worsening nutrition indices across the country, saying that the state food and nutrition committee was aimed at resolving issues bordering on food and nutrition in the state just as she pledged the committee’s commitments towards achieving results.
He said that the goal of the committee was to obtain optimum nutritional status for all Deltans with emphasis on vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents, women, elderly and groups with special needs as well as evaluate feeding pattern in boarding schools in the state among others .
In his remarks, the focal person, UNiCEF/SCFN , Dr. Michael Emeshili who is an Assistant Director in the School Department of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education disclosed that the State Government had mandated his ministry in conjunction with the ODA to ensure that Organic Farms were established in schools.
Dr.Emeshili , who noted that organic farm would be a veritable source of income generation for schools in the state, stated that every sector of the education would be involved in organic farm.
There was presentation of lectures on Adolescents Nutrition and Challenges in Schools as well as Principles and Practices of Poultry and Arable Crops Production in Schools by Mrs. Olubunmi Agwai from the State Ministry of Health and Prof. Felix Achoja represented by Dr. Oluwaseun Robinson from Delta State University, Abraka.