300 pregnant women, nursing, lactating mothers sensitized on exclusive breastfeeding for healthy living
By Akanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
Not fewer than 300 women of reproductive age, especially pregnant and lactating mothers in Warji LGA of Bauchi State have been sensitized on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding of their new born children for the first six months of life in order to prevent them from child killer diseases.
The one day sensitization training was conducted by Catalyzing Strengthen Policy Actions for Healthy Diet and Resilience (CASCADE), at the Primary Healthcare Centre (PHCC), Tudun Wada, Warji LGA as part of the activities to commemorate the 2026 World Breastfeeding Week with the theme: Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthening What Work.
Speaking at the occasion, Isaac Ishaya Audu, the Project Manager for Catalyzing Strengthen Policy Actions for Healthy Diet and Resilience, (CASCADE), says, ‘I work for CARE International in Nigeria and we are here in Tudun Wada, in Warji local government, to commemorate the World Breastfeeding Week for 2026. As part of the project commitment to ensure a widening level of awareness for pregnant women and lactating mothers.
He stressed the project is targeting healthcare facilities to be able to encourage pregnant and lactating mothers to be able to imbibe the culture of exclusive breastfeeding, as well as strengthening child upbringing, because it was realized, as a cultural practice, often within rural communities, women don’t tend to actually imbibe these cultures for one reason or the other, associated with social norms as some of the reasons why women don’t really engage in exclusive breastfeeding, which usually have impact in terms of the well-being of the child.
According to him, “Particularly in terms of supporting cognitive development for children, exclusive breastfeeding contributes significantly within that child development space, which we feel it’s a practice we have to emphasize more strongly among women and ensure that that practice is actually taken more seriously.”
Isaac Ishaya added that, “We’re joining voices alongside other actors within this space, alongside government equally, to see how we can strengthen community-level awareness, particularly on exclusive breastfeeding as a practice that pregnant and lactating mothers need to imbibe.”
Speaking on nutrition, one thing that goes with breastfeeding, he said, We have a facility-based approach which CASCADE has been promoting over the last four years, working closely across the state of implementation with the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, particularly leveraging the Primary Healthcare facilities to support pregnant and lactating mothers that are attending antenatal care sessions.”
He said, “We leverage most of these ANC sessions to facilitate complementary feeding sessions as a way of engaging women on multiple recipes that they can produce using locally available source food that could complement nutrient gap in children and equally also help to improve access to healthy diet among women and children.”
“We equally leverage the healthcare facilities to promote community-level awareness, particularly strengthening access to nutrition education for women. We also leverage the healthcare facilities in citing facility-based gardening where vegetables are being cultivated, particularly orange-fleshed sweet potatoes and equally also a particular breed of vegetable called Bomazica. We leverage the Bomazica as an alternative to contribute to anemia deficiency, particularly for pregnant women, which we cite most of these gardens within the health facilities,” he added.
He further said that, “All-encompassing, we usually establish or site nutrition corners as part of MYCYN policy implementation at state level, which we work closely with the government agency to ensure that these corners are in place, mainly to be able to support access to nutrition education, access to nutrition awareness, and sensitization among pregnant and lactating women, so it will help in actually bridging that information gap that will help to contribute in terms of increased access to healthy diet among households.”
He explained that CASCADE is a policy strengthening intervention which is aimed at strengthening actions as it actually aligns more significantly with the theme of the year for it to be able to promote community-level actions, actions at household level, actions at government institutional level, actions at community and traditional rulers level, actions at individuals who have one responsibility or the other to be able to contribute to this level of awareness in terms of strengthening exclusive breastfeeding practices among rural communities.
According to him, “This initiative is largely aimed at ensuring that efforts are actually coming across multisectoral, bringing together all necessary actors, both from traditional institutions, community leaders, healthcare facility actors, actors within the civil society space, to be able to contribute their quotas in ensuring a high level and efficient awareness in terms of adoption of exclusive breastfeeding practices among rural communities.”
He then disclosed that the project is funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, being implemented by CARE International in close collaboration with Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, (GAIN), and the direct field implementation managed by Development Exchange Center (DEC) in Bauchi, the intervention is currently being implemented across 10 local government areas in Bauchi State.
Also speaking, the Deputy Officer in Charge of the Tudun Wada PHCC, Sule Idi, commended the organizers of the sensitisation programme saying that he has gained more on how to effectively prepare women for Exclusive Breastfeeding during visits in September the facility.
He assured that henceforth, the Health Workers in the Facility will ensure that on every visit, pregnant women received adequate information on what to do in order to have healthy children.
Iin his remarks, the Village Head of Tudun Wada, Ibrahim Sarki Ahmed, commended the organizers of the sensitisation programme as well as the government for ensuring that quality healthcare services are provided.
He also stressed the importance of exclusive breastfeeding of the child in providing the child the opportunity to live a healthy life and achieve full potentials saying that education is very important in living a useful life.
He assured that as traditional rulers, they will continue to support efforts that will make life more meaningful and positive for the society.
Some of the nursing mothers expressed delight for the training as it has further exposed them to the benefits and importance of exclusive breastfeeding of their new born children.
Highlights of programme was the identification of some of the mothers and their children as Exclusive Breastfeeding Champions, they were presented with gifts items.
