By Sampson Unamka
To ensure more than 175,000 mothers and children under five do not suffer from malnutrition in this year’s “lean” season, the United States, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has provided an additional $9.5 million to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).
Disclosing in its press release recently in Abuja, USAID/Nigeria Mission Director, Stephen Haykin, said that as part of its responsibility in assisting victims of the Boko Haram conflict, the agency acted in response to the call made by WFP, adding that the grant will go to nine areas in Borno.
“In response to the call by WFP to meet a severe funding shortfall, USAID is pleased to play a part in making sure that the most vulnerable of those impacted by the Boko Haram conflict are taken care of. This support will go to nine areas where the needs of mothers and their children are the greatest.
“The assistance will help WFP reach an additional 110,000 children under five and 65,000 pregnant and nursing mothers with specialised nutritious food commodities in nine local government areas (LGA) in Borno State,” he said.
He further said, “the grant from USAID’s Health, Population and Nutrition Office augments ongoing support for the humanitarian assistance in Nigeria by its Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and Food for Peace (FFP), and seeks to bridge a funding shortfall announced by WFP late last month.”
According to him, “WFP launched the Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme, which is aimed at preventing further decline in nutritional status among young children suffering from moderate acute malnutrition, as well as protecting the nutritional status of others who are not yet malnourished but are at high risk.”
The programme, which will distribute the nutrient-rich food monthly through the end of the rainy or “lean” season in August, is anticipated to significantly reduce the burden on the health system related to treating malnutrition as well as other health conditions related to under nutrition, consequently preventing related mortality.