WFP nutrition project targets over 41,000 women, children

More than 41,000 women and children are expected to benefit from a project aimed at supporting rehabilitation and nutritional education in Kanem prefecture in north-western Chad, WFP announced in a news release.

WFP assistance amounting to more than US $1.4 million, will be used to provide food for severely malnourished children, households with moderately malnourished children aged six to 59 months and the mothers of severely malnourished children when the latter are hospitalised.

The two-year project is also aimed at improving the monitoring of malnourished children and their mothers as well as pregnant and nursing women, according to WFP.

WFP reported that the project agreement was signed on 13 August by Mamo Desta, WFP representative in Chad, and Chadian minister of planning and territorial management, Mahamat Ali Hassan.

"We are going to focus our efforts on the prefecture of Kanem affected by a chronic deficit in agricultural production that has led to a shortfall in the quantity and quality of food available to households," Mamo said.

"Surveys by our partner Action contre la Faim (ACF) indicate a significant malnutrition rate among children under the age of five years," he said.

The project will be implemented by ACF, a non-governmental organisation that has been operating successfully in Kanem since 1994, according to WFP, which reported that ACT was contributing US $325,000 to the initiative and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) US $100,000.