Province tackles child malnutrition

BA RIA-VUNG TAU (VNS)— The southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau has succeeded in reducing the rate of malnourished children between three and five years old with its "school milk programme."

Le Thanh Dung, deputy chairman of the provincial People's Committee, said last week that the province has been carrying out the programme for the last five years with the purpose of building a young generation strong in body and mind.

The programme supplies free milk to children between three and five years of age to all schools in the province. It also provides free milk to malnourished children of the age group that are not attending school.

As a result, the rate of malnourished children in this age group has reduced from 26 per cent to 15 per cent, Dung said.

The number of children whose height has improved accounts for 36.8 per cent of the total that have received free milk, he added.

Between 2007 and 2011, more than 197,000 children received free milk everyday, he said, adding that the province had spent more than VND30 billion (US$1.4 million) on the programme during this period.

Encouraging results have motivated the province to continue the programme until 2016, Dung said.

Until now, the province is the only one in the country that has implemented this programme.

Le Minh Hoang, head of the Education and Training Department in southern Dong Nai Province, said he wants to implement the programme in his province as well. — VNS