World Food Programme donates food items to manage coronavirus patients

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has donated over 10,800 bags of specialized nutritious food, to the Ghana Health Service (GHS), for use in COVID-19 case management in isolation centres.

Ms Rukia Yacoub, the WFP Representative and Country Director, said the food worth GH¢ 300,000, was to complement efforts being made to provide comprehensive care for COVID-19 patients in isolation facilities and was enough to cover three months of feeding for 4,000 patients.

She said her outfit was pleased to provide some support to the Government of Ghana during these challenging times, explaining that this specialised nutritious food, “Maizoya”, was one of the several excellent quality, highly nourishing made-in-Ghana products which the WFP with funding from Canada, had helped to develop and market.

Ms Yacoub said the product was made of blended cereals and soy flour, mixed with extra minerals and vitamins, and they were highly nutritious and formulated to meet the body’s protein, energy and micronutrient requirement for optimal growth.

She further explained that the added minerals and vitamins provided numerous health benefits such as boosting the immune system to fight infections.

She said apart from this donation, one of the WFP’s prioritised interventions under the COVID-19 pandemic was the nutrition programme, which it had been supporting the GHS to implement in the Northern and Ashanti regions.

The intervention, she said, was helping to prevent stunting among children, and micronutrient deficiencies such as anaemia among pregnant and nursing mothers, and adolescent girls.

Ms Yacoub said in addition to continuing the programme, the WFP has provided handwashing stations in all the participating health centres and retailer shops and supported the GHS to include COVID-19 preventive measures in their social and behavior change communication messages to mothers and caregivers.

Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, thanked the WFP for the numerous assistance, saying the current donation of the food items was timely and would go a long way to support the nutritional needs of persons in isolation centres across the country.