wfn.org | ACNS3347 UNICEF racing to bolster the strength of 400,000

["Anglican Communion News Service" <acnslist@anglicancommunion.org>]

ACNS 3347     |     IRAQ     |	   13 MARCH 2003

UNICEF racing to bolster the strength of 400,000 malnourished children in
Iraq

[UNICEF] With the threat of war looming over Iraq, UNICEF is providing
special therapeutic food for over 400,000 malnourished children across the
country in an urgent effort to bolster their chances of survival in the
event of a conflict.

Working closely with the Ministry of Health, UNICEF has trucked more than
1,000 metric tonnes of high-protein biscuits into Iraq in recent days. The
biscuits, which the government is now delivering to health centres across
the country, are part of an ongoing UNICEF campaign to reach Iraqi children
with life-protecting nutrients and vaccines ahead of a possible conflict.

"We are still hoping for a peaceful resolution to this crisis," said UNICEF
executive Director, Carol Bellamy. "But it's a fact that the children of
Iraq are extremely vulnerable. Their health, their nutrition, their access
to safe water - all of which are weak already - will be further jeopardized
in a war. By acting to reach them now, we hope to save lives in the weeks
and months ahead."

UNICEF has also delivered 155 metric tonnes of therapeutic milk to feed
children suffering from severe malnutrition - a major cause underlying death
among children under five. A total of 10,000 severely malnourished children
will benefit immediately from the therapeutic milk, which is now arriving in
each of the 63 nutrition rehabilitation centres run by the Iraq Ministry of
Health.

The UNICEF deliveries constitute the first shipments of high protein
biscuits and therapeutic milk into the country in two years. The supplies
are sufficient to last for a month. UNICEF has also shipped nutritional
supplies to its warehouses in the countries surrounding Iraq to enable a
rapid response should a surge in malnutrition occur.

Iraq has one of the highest rates of under-five mortality in the world, with
more than one in eight children dying before they reach their fifth
birthday. Although it has improved in recent years, malnutrition also
remains high, affecting one in four Iraqi children under the age of five -
almost 1 million youngsters in total.

Half of Iraq's 24.5 million people are children.

___________________________________________________________________

For details about the Enthronement of the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury,
the Most Revd Rowan D Williams, visit http://www.anglicancommunion.org/

ACNSlist, the email edition of Anglican Communion News Service, is
published by the Anglican Communion Office, London. QUESTIONS or COMMENTS
may be sent to: acnslist@anglicancommunion.org

You may subscribe to acnslist or unsubscribe at:
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/acnslist.html