Mumbai: Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children (BJWHC), India’s first and largest Paediatric hospital in association with UNICEF formally inaugurated the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre facility at BJWHC.
The inauguration was presided by Chief guest, Mr Jim Morris, United States Representative on the Executive Board of the United National Children’s Fund (UNICEF) along with Mrs. Rajeshwari Chandrasekar, Chief of UNICEF Field Office for Maharashtra, Mr. Ness Wadia, Trustee, Wadia Hospitals, Dr. Minnie Bodhanwala, CEO, Wadia Hospitals and other dignitaries.
The state of the art Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre will address child survival and development with equity among the most deprived urban poor communities in and around Mumbai by providing advanced treatment support with a focus on early childhood development for children with Severe Acute Malnutrition at BJWHC. More than 250 SAM children will get holistic inpatient care at this facility every year. As part of this effort, UNICEF has been continuously offering technical and training support to staff members functioning in the hospital. This state of the art NRC plus unit will also establish itself as the centre for research. This centre would also become the training hub for health staff and field staff on management of children with SAM.
Child Under nutrition remains the biggest threat to child survival, growth and development despite significant development in the social and economic sector across the Country. It continues to be a huge public health challenge and future global prosperity and security are intimately linked with our ability to respond adequately to this urgent challenge. ‘The Lancet’ 2013 series shows that under nutrition contributes to the deaths of about 3 million children each year – 45% of the total mortality load of the under-fives.