Niger: UNICEF Supports Supplementary Feeding

UNICEF Supports Supplementary Feeding Of Half A Million Children In Niger

30 April 2010. – The nutritional status of young children in Niger is getting a boost with a UNICEF-supported project set to reach 500,000 children with supplementary food.

The feeding programme is designed to prevent malnutrition among children below the age of two and provides complementary food to children regardless of their nutritional status. Very young children are the most vulnerable in times of food shortages.

While the main programme will run between May and August, an initial distribution took place this week in Koleram, a village in the region of Zinder, where some 800 children aged 6-23 months have received the first of a series of four monthly rations of supplementary food.

A child’s monthly ration of complementary food includes 8.3 kilos of fortified corn soy blend with sugar and 0.75 KG of oil enriched with vitamin A. A total of 17,700 metric tonnes of food is necessary to feed 500,000 children.

The 500,000 children targeted are in areas found to have global acute malnutrition rates above the emergency threshold level and in areas identified during the last national rapid survey as food insecure.

Following erratic rainfall in 2009, more than half of the population of Niger is considered as food insecure with 3.4 million people needing immediate help. Rates for global acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition are 12.3 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively, according to the latest information.

All regions of Niger, except Niamey, will benefit from general supplementary food distribution in 2010, to reduce malnutrition peaks in a country where one child out of two suffers from stunting.

UNICEF Niger Country Director, Guido Cornale, says that children are the first to suffer from climatic shocks, with more and more children being admitted to therapeutic feeding centers.

“To prevent their health from deteriorating, UNICEF supports the training of census takers, community mobilization and awareness-raising as well as malnutrition screening in children.

“These prevention activities are crucial in tackling the situation and ensuring the success of the feeding operation.”

The feeding programme is a joint initiative between UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the Government, and 13 partner organizations.

ENDS

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