Post-harvest needs similar to lean season

A recent post-harvest survey in Mozambique has shown worrying levels of vulnerability for children and orphans due to the combined impact of drought and HIV/AIDS. The post-harvest survey showed vulnerability levels similar to those recorded during last year's lean season - when communities have generally depleted their food stocks and are more vulnerable. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said additional analysis of data collected by the national Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC) in May and June, showed that "maternal orphans were found to be 50 percent more likely to be chronically malnourished than the general child population (56 percent versus 37.6 percent), and 120 percent more likely to be severely chronically malnourished (36.4 percent versus 15.3 percent)". Maternal orphans were also found to have considerably less access to care, with a higher likelihood of getting sick. The additional analysis of the VAC findings was published on Thursday by UNICEF and the Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition (SETSAN). "The latest data highlights that we need to do more to ensure that orphaned children are identified and are receiving appropriate support. The limited response to the UN Regional Appeal is having an extremely negative impact on our ability to respond to the situation," Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Representative in Mozambique, was quoted as saying. "To date we have received less than 5 percent of the funds we need for this." UNICEF appealed for US $8.5 million for its work in Mozambique through the UN Regional Consolidated Appeal launched in July. Twenty-nine districts were surveyed during the latest assessment, which confirmed the "very high mortality rate among children, with one in four Mozambican children dying before they reach their fifth birthday". The latest assessment showed similar levels of vulnerability to those in the previous survey, conducted in November-December 2002. Acute malnutrition remained almost at the same level (4.3 percent compared to 4.8 percent), although it was expected to drop. UNICEF pointed out that while "the previous assessment was carried out during the normal lean season, the latest data was collected after the harvest period". UNICEF and other UN agencies are supporting a series of interventions aimed at addressing both the immediate life-saving needs, and the underlying causes of vulnerability, among children and women. "This includes, among other things, the identification of orphaned children, and child and elderly headed households; nutritional and epidemiological surveillance; supplementary and therapeutic feeding; participatory education to strengthen hygiene, nutrition and caring practices; Vitamin A supplementation and de-worming in the most affected districts; and the provision of learning materials to prevent children affected by the humanitarian situation from dropping out of school," the organisation said. UNICEF was also supporting the Ministry for Women and the Co-ordination of Social Action (MACS) and the Foundation for Community Development (FDC) in organising the first national seminar on children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. The four-day gathering will be held in Maputo from 24 November.