By Isatou Jawara
The UN Assistant Secretary General and Coordinator Scaling Up Nutrition Sun Movement Ms Gerda Verburg, last Tuesday 8th May 2018, visited Building Resilience through social transfers for Nutrition Security Project at Brikamaba Health Center in the Central River Region.
The project target about six thousand lactating mothers, who are currently benefiting from this project by receiving six hundred dalasi D600 on a monthly basis.
The visit was part of her mission in the Gambia to visit various intervention sites and discuss with stakeholders, communities, and lactation mothers as well as to see how the project is implemented through cash transfer within the communities.
The project is funded by European Union and implemented by UNICEF, in partnership with the National Nutrition Agency (NANA) the department of social welfare, DSW, and the Ministry of health in the Gambia who are implementing the three-year project titles; Building Resilience through social transfer for Nutritional security in the Gambia BREST.
The three-million-euro project is funded by the European Union and implemented in the North Bank, Upper River and Central River regions of the country.
The project was designed to support maternal, child nutrition and health results MCNHRP, funded by the World Bank, which provides conditional cash transfer to pregnant women from pregnancy till birth. Thus, the BREST projects create a continuum in care for the women and her child till the completion of the first 1000 days.
Speaking to journalists at Brikamaba health center, the UN official expressed satisfaction with the project.
“I am impressed with the support of the young mothers,” she said. “People from UNICEF, NANA are doing a great job.”
She said that this type of project is fitting and is doing great toward improving the health condition of children. She thanked the government of the Gambia specially NANA officials for putting nutrition in the forefront.
