Nutritional programme for school girls

Pakistani authorities, the Aga Khan University (AKU) and several NGOs will be partners in a nationwide nutritional programme for school girls, which is to start later this year as summer vacations end, officials told IRIN on Wednesday. The two-year programme plans to provide a meal per day and food supplements to about half a million girls between the age of five and 12 in 28 of the country's poorest regions. "The project is in the process of starting," Dr. Franklin White, chairman of the Community Health Sciences Department at the AKU, told IRIN from the port city of Karachi. He said the ground work for such a huge programme was being carried out and different NGOs were being contacted to be partners in executing the project. A government statement faxed to IRIN said the Ministry of Women's Development signed a memorandum of understanding with the AKU on Tuesday for the implementation of the project, which is going to cost close to US$ 58 million over a period of two years. The money is being provided by the government of Pakistan. "This is the first time that such a programme has been launched in Pakistan," the ministry said. "Besides the problems pertaining to malnutrition, the programme will also cover educational aspects such as enrollment and attendance," it added. White said the AKU had seven years of experience in a similar though smaller project of feeding 148 schools in the poverty-ridden southern Sindh province. "This new project is national in scope although it is focused on the most vulnerable," he explained. The authorities expect that all the intended 500,000 girls will start benefiting from the programme by the middle of 2003. The programme is sponsored by the Ministry of Women Development with technical assistance from the AKU.