The Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the Upper East Region has trained 123 community health workers to embark on community health education and identification of children suffering from malnutrition. The community health workers, who would also serve as trainers for volunteers in the Bolgatanga Municipality, the Bawku West and the Kassena-Nankana districts, were taught how to bring down malnutrition in children significantly. Mr Benjamine Aggrey, Regional Nutrition Officer, who facilitated the workshop in Zebilla for 41 Community Health Workers at the weekend, said the regional demographic and health survey showed high levels of stunted growth and chronic malnutrition in children under the age of five. He said the trend was not good for proper growth of children and so the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) decided to fund the training which is on pilot basis with the hope of scaling it up nationwide. Mr Aggrey said the old practice where malnourished children were camped in rehabilitation centres and taken care of had not been helpful. There was therefore the need to identify and treat most of the malnourished children within the communities. Mr Aggrey attributed malnutrition in the region to high poverty levels as a result of climatic conditions such as erratic rainfall pattern and exhausted farmlands. He said this was not good, adding that similar pilot programmes had been going on in the Greater Accra and Central regions.Source: GNA