Neno District Red-Cross Society Community Development Facilitator Charity Sande says Covid-19 pandemic has affected nutrition status of under five children since promoters of nutrition have been unable to reach lactating mothers with information due to Covid-19 restrictions hence the initiative.

“Our assessment has revealed that nutrition status of under five children in the two Traditional Authorities, Dambe and Chekicheku has dropped. This is partly due to unavailability of health promoters that encourage lactating mothers to breast feed babies up to the first one thousand days of life," she said.

She notes that the health promoters categorized into promoters, male champions and cluster leaders have been unable to reach out to mothers with Scaling Up Nutrition information due to Covid-19, as they are being restricted with the pandemic to hold meetings.

Taking her turn, Ruth Filipo, Donda village Cluster leader, said the items will help them protect themselves from Covid-19 as they venture into villages to sensitize people on nutrition.

"We have been idle for months and this has come at a right time when mothers are lacking information on healthy diet. Covid-19 has created an information gap on nutrition that has resulted in malnutrition in our babies", she said.

The support team members have each gone home with three face masks, six soap tablets, a bottle of hand sanitizer, a t-shirt, Covid-19 booklets and Scalling Up Nutrition information books among others.