Child stunting drops by 34pc in Bukombe

BUKOMBE: BUKOMBE District Council in Geita Region has successfully reduced the challenge of child stunting by 34 per cent, dropping from an average of 23 children in 2024 to an average of 15 children in 2025.

The District Medical Officer of Bukombe, Mr Deograsia Mkapa, released the statistics recently during the national nutrition day celebrations held in the area.

Mr Deograsia said the improvement is the result of strong nutrition education, where the council has established a sustainable plan to provide nutrition education within the community to completely eliminate stunting.

He added that besides the efforts, the programme also involves various stakeholders to ensure that students receive nutrition education and proper diets, especially in schools.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of Bukombe District Council, Mr Adelina Mfwika, said they will ensure all secondary schools cultivate food crops so that students can have a complete meal while at school.

“Through food production at school, a student also learns self-reliance education. They learn proper production and other related skills,” she said.

For his part, Bukombe District Commissioner, Engineer Paskasi Muragili, urged the community to prioritise nutrition in order to completely eliminate stunting and build a nation of people who can make informed decisions.

“If you want any nation with good development, professionals, energetic youth and creative individuals, then that nation must prioritise nutrition,” said Muragili.

He added that physical stunting leads to cognitive stunting and for this reason, the government has made nutrition a priority to ensure malnutrition and stunting are eradicated in the district.