Malnutrition and Stuntedness a major outcome of GBV in the Rwenzori region

Different stake holders in a consultative engagement about food safety

By Kagenda

What you need to know

Malnutrition and Stuntedness have been identified as one of the major outcome of GBV in the Rwenzori region worrying experts of the future generation of the region

Bwambale Bernard the  Head of Programs at Consent Uganda says Gender Based violence specifically domestic violence has a great contributed to the increasing cases of stuntedness and malnutrition especially when women are physically assaulted and wounded which leaves them with limited time to prepare and take good care of their children

Bwambale Bernard the  Head of Programs at Consent Uganda

He adds that women being psychologically tortured causes stress and depression which results to reduced breast feeding milk, mothers keeping most of the time in hospitals nursing wounds or even divorcing leave the children with a single parent who are most times not financially stable exposing children to risks of being malnourished and stunted

Bwambale says there a lot of coloration between stuntedness, malnutrition and domestic violence hence calling upon communities to create violence free communities to improve the nutrition status of our homes

The Kabarole district probation officer Jamie Kakunguru says domestic violence has left mothers with no conducive environment of taking good care of their children especially to exclusively feed them for six months .

RelationshiShe adds that domestic violence has led to increased unplanned pregnancies ,birth complications among expecting women ,increased spread of sexually transmitted diseases since couples cant harmoniously dialogue and reach an agreement.

Kakunguru further expounded how GBV has led to increased death of parents which leaves children vulnerable exposing them to risks stunted or malnourished

According to the Kabarole district deputy healthy officer Anna Tukahirwa, domestic violence has led to increased cases of teenage of pregnancy in the district with 56% of teenage mothers having their children stunted which worries the future of the region hence calling for collaborative efforts in ending teenage pregnancies

Agrey Gwayita the regional nutritionist at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital says the burden of malnutrition is still worsening in the region since the number of children admitted with severe acute malnutrition is still high with children between 60-90 admitted every month.He adds that many mothers have remained single due to the effects of Gender Based Violence forcing them to focused on income generation for survival abandoning their children

He adds that broken social structures have left most of the children in the hands of their grant parents who cant offer them adequate support since majority of those who visit health facilities are above 60 years