The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will spearhead a new campaign aimed at providing nutritional support to Bangladeshi children and women.
According to WFP, the campaign will specifically target the country’s Cox’s Bazar district where almost 20 per cent of children under the age of five are undernourished.
The programme will not only include nutritional support for those in need but also provide nutrition education for the community-at-large, WFP highlighted.
“The rolling out of this programme to improve maternal and child nutrition with the Government is an important step in the fight against undernutrition in Cox’s Bazar.” – Christa Rader, WFP Representative in Bangladesh
Ms. Rader stresses that by acting now to address the critical first 1,000 days of life and the period up to age five.
WFP aims to help children reach their full potential later in life, Ms. Rader noted.
WFP plans to assist 14,800 children and 2,000 pregnant and nursing women through the programme.
UN says two million children are suffering from acute malnutrition in Bangladesh, where one-quarter of all households are hungry.
Out of the two million wasting children between the ages of six months and five years, 500,000 are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, or severe malnutrition, according to the report, which was conducted to assess the impact of soaring food prices in Bangladesh in 2008.
Nearly 60 per cent of the households surveyed said they had insufficient food over the past 12 months, with real household income plunging 12 per cent between 2005 and 2008.
Malnutrition, which can directly cause death, affects child development and increases the risk of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth.
