Malnutrition worsening

Malnutrition rates are increasing at an alarming rate in Zimbabwe, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday. "All the assessments show that it is actually getting worse, as we move away from the harvest season towards the new planting season ... things have got worse," UNICEF Representative in Harare, Festo Kavishe, told IRIN. Figures from a joint assessment conducted in August by the Zimbabwe National Vulnerability Assessment Committee, the World Food Programme, and UNICEF showed that wasting rates have increased from 6.4 percent to 7.1 percent, underweight rates from 20.4 percent to 24.4 percent, while stunting rose from 33 percent to 43.2 percent. UNICEF was set to provide vital nutritional support for 129,000 young children and women who are pregnant or breast-feeding in Zimbabwe. A convoy of trucks recently brought in 360 mt of UNIMIX, a supplementary food for children, from South Africa. Kavishe said the UNIMIX could be used to make a porridge and was "mainly composed of soya and maize fortified with several micronutrients, which includes multi-vitamins and minerals," to provide a nutritional boost to recipients. "The consignment is the first in a number of procurements which will eventually bring the total to 1,200 mt. The funding for the US $700,000 programme has been provided by UNICEF and ECHO [European Commission - Humanitarian Aid Office]," UNICEF said in a statement. Zimbabwe has the highest number of people at risk from a humanitarian crisis that affects six countries in Southern Africa. An estimated six million Zimbabweans need aid as a result of severe food shortages, poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. "The supplementary feeding programme is due to start on Monday 16 [September] and will target five districts in the north east of the country. It is expected to last three months. UNICEF will closely monitor and evaluate its feeding programme together with other UN agencies, donors, government counterparts and NGOs," the agency said. Community health workers were being trained to make the UNIMIX porridge, which is given as part of a planned nutritional programme to children under five and women who are in particular need of dietary supplements. "The workers will be educated on the need to use safe water sources and to keep accurate weight records of beneficiaries," UNICEF noted. "We are seeing a frightening and rapid deterioration in the condition of many children. We are trying to provide a timely and relevant response to save children from severe damage if not death," Kavishe said. UNICEF has appealed for more than US $26 million to assist emergency programmes in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland. In July, the agency appealed for US $8 million for Zimbabwe. So far, it has received just US $1.2 million, Kavishe said. "We've requested close to US $4.5 million for nutrition [programmes] alone and received about US $900,000 so far," he added.