Katsina State in northwestern Nigeria is primarily an agricultural state, with a focus on the production of cotton, sorghum, millet, and peanut products. Livestock rearing is also a significant economic activity. However, in spite of the rich agricultural landscape, the people of Katsina suffer immense economic hardship. Attacks on communities by non-state armed groups, has caused farming, which is the main economic activity of the people, to drastically reduce, creating a gap in food production.
One of the major challenges facing the people of Katsina is malnutrition. Nearly 6 million children aged 0–59 months continue to suffer from acute malnutrition in Northwest and Northeast Nigeria, including 1,623,130 severe acute malnutrition (SAM) cases and 4,308,404 moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) cases. In addition, 511,890 pregnant and lactating women were acutely malnourished and in need of nutrition interventions (HNO, May 22–April 23).
In Katsina alone, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Acute Malnutrition Analysis May 2024-April 2025, 335,976 Children 0-59 months are affected by Severe Acute Malnutrition and in need of treatment of which ALIMA has treated over 40,971. In addition to providing treatment, ALIMA also focuses on scaling up much-needed prevention methods to reduce malnutrition, morbidity and mortality among children under 5, lactating mothers, and pregnant mothers in the region.
© Etinosa Yvonne / ALIMA
Charity begins at home
As the security situation in the region continued to deteriorate due to attacks in villages by non-state armed groups, thousands of people fled Katsina in search of safety and a more promising future. Others, like Habiba Ibrahim and Amina Abdul-Aziz, remained, in the hopes that they could leverage on their skills as health workers to support the community they call home. Their hopes became a reality when ALIMA started its interventions in the Kaita Local Government Area of the state and they were hired at the Comprehensive Health Center (CHC) in Kaita by ALIMA in partnership with the Katsina Ministry Of Health as Community Health Workers.
“Life in Kaita before ALIMA intervention was very difficult due to lack of health and nutrition awareness, poor health habits and low income. I enjoy my job a lot because now, I am contributing to the improvement of my community’s well being by providing health and nutrition support”.
25-year-old Amina is a mother of 2 and has a diploma in Health and Social Rehabilitation. She has worked as a Community Health Worker at the Kaita CHC supported by ALIMA since 2022 and says the most remarkable aspect of her job is supporting the community. Moreover, by teaching mothers to provide nutritious food for their children, she also improves her knowledge to take better care of her own children. Amina’s 40-year-old counterpart and mother of 6, Habiba finds her work interacting with beneficiaries very impactful and encouraging.
“The mothers and caregivers come to the health facility feeling helpless because of the poor health of their children; most of them suffering from severe malnutrition. I am happy that I play a key role in easing their burden by helping provide quality health care and raising awareness on ways malnutrition can be prevented”.
Healthy, affordable, and sustainable initiatives to fight malnutrition
Through cooking demonstrations, one-on-one counseling of caregivers, and nutritional awareness and education sessions, Amina and Habiba are among a vibrant ALIMA team who have helped drastically reduce the number of people affected by malnutrition in the community. These sessions aim to prevent malnutrition by informing mothers and caregivers on how to prepare affordable nutritious meals using maize, millet or guinea corn, soya beans and groundnuts, ingredients that are all available locally at an affordable price.
The cooking demonstrations which take place twice weekly not only help the mothers to provide healthy and affordable meals for their families, but also teaches them to be self-sufficient. The demonstrations convey nutritional information through cooking and include discussions on different available food items and how they can be used, as well as cooking the food together and tasting the foods prepared.
The process requires that demonstrators like Amina and Habiba explain the processes involved in preparing a nutritious meal; in this case, a complimentary meal like ‘Tom Brown’ (a semi solid meal made with millet or guinea corn, soya beans and groundnuts), Beans pottage made with mashed fish, spinach, and red oil, and mashed sweet potatoes made with carrot, ginger and red oil. The recipes are to be accessible, affordable, prepared within a hygienic environment, and retain a high nutrient content to meet most of the needs of the child who is still breastfed by his/her mother from 6 months. All the ingredients are expected to be purchased in the community in order to show accessibility of the food.
Amina says she is happy her dream of helping people is being actualised through her work.
“The organization provides free treatment to patients, food (on admission), motivation, health education, job opportunity, and capacity building, who would not want to be a part of this noble cause?”.
As for Habiba, “The CHC has contributed immensely in terms of health, nutrition and maternal health seeking behaviors, through frequent health talks and education which helps in reshaping the mindsets of the people.”
From September 2023 to September 2024, out of 79,736 women who attended the sessions, 56,954 were able to recall the key nutrition messages while 22,782 participants adopted it into their daily routine.
These activities are made possible thanks to generous funding from the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).
Cover picture : © Etinosa Yvonne / ALIMA
