‘US will continue to work urgently to address malnutrition crisis’

ISLAMABAD: The United States Mission in Islamabad said on Saturday that the US will continue to work urgently with Pakistan to address the malnutrition crisis in the country.

In a video statement, US Mission Islamabad spokesperson Jonathan Lalley stated that Pakistan’s 2022 floods devastated the lives of millions of Pakistanis. He said that women and children were hit especially hard. “Even today, millions of Pakistani children are at risk of dying from malnutrition,” he warned.

Of the more than $215 million the United States provided for flood relief and recovery, he added that nearly $100 million has gone toward addressing malnutrition. “We partnered with the World Food programme to provide emergency food and nutrition,” he said.

With UNICEF, we treated nearly 135,000 malnourished children, provided pre-natal care to some 74,000 pregnant women, and offered essential health care services,” he added. “With the World Health Organization, we established 12 nutrition stabilisation centers across Balochistan and Sindh to provide essential health services,” the spokesperson added.

During the current month, he added that US Ambassador Donald Blome delivered an additional 486 tons of ready to use therapeutic food to treat an additional 39,000 children. “With that donation, the United States has delivered emergency therapeutic food to more than 317,000 Pakistani mothers and children, and enabled 779,000 front line health care workers to provide nutrition counselling to parents and caregivers to prevent malnutrition in the first place,” he stated. “The United States will continue to work urgently with Pakistan to address the malnutrition crisis. Because every Pakistani child deserves the opportunity to grow up, to be healthy and strong, and to reach their full potential,” the spokesperson further stated.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024