Malnutrition Rate Among Children in Vietnam Poor Areas Likely to Drop to 38% by End-year
The rate of malnutrition and stunting in children under 16 years old in poor districts and extremely difficult communes in Vietnam’s coastal, coastal, and island areas is expected to decrease to 38% in 2023 thanks to the implementation of a project under the national target program on sustainable poverty reduction, according to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA).
This year, the project to improve people’s nutrition is provided with VND270 billion ($11.12 million) from the central budget, VND21.35 billion ($879,688) from local budget and VND1.2 billion from other sources, the ministry said.
A report from the government showed that in order to implement the project, the Ministry of Health has organized a conference to give guidance on its implementation, along with eight training courses to provide professional instructions to 180 officials from disease control centers of target provinces, and published professional guidance.
Localities have organized nutrition consulting activities and provided multi-micronutrient supplements for malnourished children under 16 years old, and products to treat acute malnutrition following professional guidance of the Ministry of Health in poor districts and extremely difficult communes in coastal and island areas, as well as for children under 16 years old in poor households, near-poor households, and households that have just escaped poverty. The rate of children receiving vitamin A and deworming drugs has reached over 90% in target areas.
Meanwhile, localities have supplied multi-micronutrients to 46,402 pregnant and breastfeeding women in 1,089 communes covered by the program, with a total of over 8.45 million tablets of the supplements. At the same time, they have distributed nearly 11.14 million vitamin A tablets of 200,000 IU and nearly 1.48 million vitamin A tablets of 100,000 IU to children between 6-59 months old.
Besides, communication activities have been strengthened following the instructions of the Ministry of Health.