The City of Bulawayo has recorded low levels of underweight children in parts of the city, health officials said, coinciding with the launch of a new parenting application aimed at improving child nutrition and development.
The application, Rerai Umntwana, was officially unveiled at Cowdray Park Health Centre on Friday. It targets parents and guardians of children aged zero to six years, offering guidance on nutrition, growth, early learning, and caregiver wellbeing.
Speaking at the launch, Dr Edris Gawuke, from the City of Bulawayo Health Services Department, highlighted progress made through immunisation and growth monitoring programmes.
“From the immunisation programme and the growth monitoring that we have been doing, last year we managed to monitor between 24 000 and 32 000 children in Emakhandeni district alone,” Dr Gawuke said.
He said the results showed relatively low levels of underweight children in the area.
“Of those children, only 2 percent were moderately underweight and 1 percent were severely underweight. In contrast, northern suburbs report higher rates of overweight among children,” he added.
Dr Gawuke also noted progress in nutrition support programmes, reporting that 1,438 children enrolled were successfully treated with no losses to follow-up. However, he cautioned that rising overweight cases in some suburbs remain a growing challenge.
At the event, Mara Nyawo, Chief of Nutrition and Child Development, warned that poor nutrition in early childhood can have lasting consequences.
“When children lack proper nutrition, they also lack nursing care, safety, and early stimulation. The effects are not temporary and can last a lifetime,” she said.
Nyawo highlighted that over 26 percent of Zimbabwean children live in food poverty, lacking access to diets that meet basic nutritional needs. She said this contributes to high rates of stunting, which can limit growth, learning, and future potential.
She added that many caregivers struggle to access reliable information during critical stages of a child’s development. Officials said the Rerai Umntwana app aims to bridge that gap, providing consistent and practical guidance during the first thousand days of a child’s life, a period considered crucial for lifelong health and development.
“At the same time, many parents and caregivers struggle to access practical information on how best to care for their children. Guidance is often fragmented, inconsistent, or unavailable when it is most needed,” Nyawo said.
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