Malnutrition Deeply: Nutrition Community ‘Leaving Adolescent Girls Behind’
“Marie T. Ruel, the director of the poverty, health, and nutrition division of the International Food Policy Research Institute, believes the nutrition community cannot afford to ignore adolescent girls anymore. Ruel thinks these efforts need to be modeled along the 1,000 Days campaign, which prioritized the nutrition and care practices for mothers through pregnancy and the first two years of an infant’s life. Armed with the right advocacy and programming, the nutritional status of adolescent girls can be made a priority. The success in saving newborns and infants from malnutrition in the 1,000 Days campaign has created new challenges, including how to continue to protect these young people as children and as they move into adolescence. One particular concern is the nutritional health of adolescent girls. Once they leave infancy, girls have little interaction with the health system…” (Byatnal, 2/19).