SAN SALVADOR (NNN-Prensa Latina) -- The El Salvadoran Health Ministry (MINSAL) and the UN World Food Program have presented the initiative "Improving Nutrition", aimed at 17,000 pregnant women and children under two suffering malnutrition.Previously, a National Council of Nutritional Food was created through joint efforts by international cooperation agencies and state-run businesses in order to prevent deaths caused by malnutrition.
The Council, headed by Health Minister Maria Isabel Rodriguez, plans to draft a plan similar to "Zero Hunger", developed in Brazil since 2003 by former President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva to benefit 6.5 million poor families.
Regarding the "Improving Nutrition" project, WFP representative in El Salvador Dorte Ellehammer said that it is essential to guarantee food security and pay attention carefully to mother-and-child feeding.
We are aware of the importance of these efforts and their benefits for the population, she said, and noted that well-fed children learn better than those poorly nourished.
She said all concerned parties must design plans so that Salvadorian children are well fed in the first 1,000 days of life.
The task seems to be daunting in a country where 37.8 percent of households live in poverty and 12 percent in abject poverty, according to official figures.
The lack of economic resources affects 33.3 percent of the urban population and 46.5 percent of the rural population.
Those indexes led the Family Health poll (FESAL 2008) to find that 19.2 percent of Salvadorian children under five suffer malnutrition and 9.6 percent of women of reproductive age are affected by anemia. -- NNN-PRENSA LATINA
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