A press release from UNICEF, to which the Lusa agency had access, points out that nutritional supplements will reinforce provincial programs to combat malnutrition, the activities carried out by local governments in this period of response to covid-19, as well as supporting interventions of nutritional response resulting from periods of cyclical droughts in the provinces of Cuando Cubango, Cunene, Huíla and Namibe, south of the country.
"UNICEF has supported the Government of Angola, in particular the provincial governments in the south of the country, in the development of emergency response activity packages that focus mainly on the sectors of health and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, child protection, behavior change and community involvement ", highlights the note.
The United Nations organization stresses that these activities are based on a broader strategy to link emergency response with a local social development agenda.
With the assistance of UNICEF and partners, reports the UN organization, in the first half of this year, more than 300 health technicians were trained to provide screening and treatment services for acute malnutrition and provide advice on infant feeding and supplementation practices. with micronutrients for parents and carers of young children.
Last year, funds from the United Nations Central for Emergencies (CERF), the support of UNICEF and Non-Governmental Organizations World Vision, Action for Rural Development (ADRA) and People In Need have allowed some 232,000 to be screened for malnutrition. children under the age of five, through the intervention of more than 1,000 community agents and trained health technicians in the provinces of Cunene, Huíla, Bié and Namibe.
Of the total diagnosed children, more than 23,000 were treated for moderate acute malnutrition and about 7800 were treated for severe acute malnutrition, in 28 special nutrition units and 218 health units, with outpatient treatment programs equipped with nutritional and material supplies diagnostic.
This year, the activities carried out in the south of Angola are funded by CERF, the Banco de Fomento de Angola and the Government of Japan, whose support, in addition to serving to purchase nutritional supplements, foresees to ensure that about 16,000 children under five years have access to the prevention and screening of acute malnutrition and about 12,000 others, of school age, benefit from deworming and micronutrient supplementation.
"The issue of malnutrition has been a major concern for UNICEF and its partners, even before the pandemic, however, with the emergence of this emergency situation more families may have greater difficulty in ensuring the proper nutrition of their children, so our efforts are going to support the authorities to ensure that there are continuities of these and other services so that no child is left behind and their situation is aggravated, "said Jean François Basse, UNICEF interim representative in Angola, cited in the document.
UNICEF recalls that Angola is a country prone to cyclical droughts, which mainly affect the south of the country, with more than 56,000 families estimated to be in a situation of food insecurity in 2020, due to the drought registered in 2019.
According to the latest nutritional survey conducted in the provinces of Huíla and Cunene, the prevalence of acute malnutrition in children under five is 13.6 percent in Huíla and 12.9 percent in Cunene, with an estimated 3 percent one hundred of these children in Huíla and 1.7 percent in Cunene are at risk of life, due to severe acute malnutrition.
Rain has been sparse and irregular in southern Angola and the highest temperatures since 1975 have been recorded in the past three years, the statement said.
