Mastercard Foundation Scholar wins Ellie Maxwell Award for tackling malnutrition in Nigeria

Saadatu’s inspiration to bring change began during her undergraduate clinical placement at Yusuf Dantsoho Memorial Hospital in Kaduna State. 

“I saw hundreds of children suffering from both moderate and severe acute malnutrition.  Many were weak, swollen, while pregnant women were pale and breathless due to iron deficiency anaemia; conditions that could be corrected with simple nutritional support,” she recalls. A year later, during community nutrition work in Kano State, she encountered the same scenes: children with sunken eyes, visible ribs, and mothers struggling without information or resources. “That was when I knew I had to act.”

The Fight Malnutrition initiative

This experience led to the creation of Fight Malnutrition, a community-based initiative that has already reached more than 500 children with screening, treatment and caregiver education. Among countless stories, one stays with Saadatu: a three-month-old baby brought to hospital weak and severely swollen after being fed sugary pap because his mother believed she had no breast milk. With therapeutic feeding and counselling, the child recovered.

“Seeing the mother’s tears of joy reminded me why I chose this path,” Saadatu says.

However, building a grassroots health initiative has not been easy. Saadatu and her team are often challenged with local gatekeeping that risks diverting support away from those most in need. To overcome this, she trains local contacts to help with screening, mobilisation, and follow-up, strengthening trust and community ownership. 

Funding remains another challenge, but strategic partnerships with health facilities and local organisations have allowed Fight Malnutrition to keep expanding despite limited resources.

Winning the Ellie Maxwell Award

Winning the Ellie Maxwell Award marks a powerful milestone. “This is the first award Fight Malnutrition has ever received,” Saadatu says. “It encourages me to reach more women, more children, and more communities.” 

Saadatu’s approach, which links education, screening, and treatment into an integrated framework, is based on her expertise as a master trainer in Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition. Using songs, drama, demonstrations, and visual tools, the initiative ensures families can understand, remember and apply optimal nutrition practices in their daily lives.

The impact of education

Moreover, as a postgraduate student in the MSc Global Food Security and Nutrition program, Saadatu has been reflecting on her learning and applying it to her work.

Through the GFSN programme, she learnt that nutrition is a multi-sectoral issue requiring a holistic approach, integrating food systems, health, agriculture, and education. "This understanding has strengthened Fight Malnutrition by helping us design interventions that link community nutrition, local food production, caregiver empowerment, and sustainable livelihoods," says Saadatu. "It has reinforced the importance of collaboration with local stakeholders and shaped my vision of creating lasting change where families are not only nourished but also equipped to sustain their health and wellbeing."

What the future holds

As she looks ahead, Saadatu’s vision is bold: a Nigeria where every woman and child has access to proper nutrition, families achieve food security and every community can thrive free from malnutrition. Over the next five years, Saadatu hopes to reach 2,000 communities and expand into addressing nutritional chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. “The Ellie Maxwell Award”, she says, “will provide vital resources, mentorship, and networks to scale up and ensure a lasting, measurable impact across underserved communities.”

Saadatu shared a message to young changemakers who want to help their community: