Special cereal provided to 8,911 pregnant, lactating women, children in Saptari

KATHMANDU, June 20: A total of 8,911 expecting mothers, new mothers as well as children between 6 to 23 months group were provided with special cereal and health safety gears against COVID-19 in Saptari.

During the weeklong food distribution campaign that concluded recently, the food item measuring over 53 metric tonnes in total were distributed to 1,680 pregnant women, 1,382 lactating mothers and 5,849 children who came from marginalized and vulnerable group.

The beneficiaries were also those, whose breadwinning members of the families were rendered jobless due to ongoing COVID-19, received 6-kg of special cereal.
 
The cereal is also called Wheat and Soya Blend (WSB). The nutritious supplementary feeding has a major portion of wheat (63.3%), soya 25% and vitamin premix (0.2%), mineral premix (1.23 %) and potassium chloride (0.27%).
 
The campaign was conducted in response to the COVID-19 in all wards of three municipalities in Saptari district. It was launched by the World Food Progamme (WFP) in support of the Province Health Directorate and the UKAid. Aashman Nepal had supported the ground level implementation of the campaign.

Meanwhile, under the campaign, the Health Office, Saptari also provided 7,000 pieces of surgical masks and face shields to the beneficiaries for COVID-19 prevention.

The beneficiaries were also provided with pamphlets containing information about COVID-19, childcare during pandemic and preparedness against flood, and inundation among others occurring mostly during the monsoon.
 
Salma Khatun, 25, of Kanchanrup Municipality expressed her happiness over in-kind support distributed thoughtfully to new mothers like her. Khatun said with the support she could provide nutritious supplementary food to herself and her newborn at the time of health crisis like this.

Head of Health Office, Saptari, Duniya Lal Yadav said, “The programme supports the needy pregnant and lactating women, and children below two years in the crisis and lacking nutritious food.” Yadav added that the pamphlets sensitize them of the regular health service visits and immunization drive of the government.
 
Mayor of Kanchanrup Municipality Basant Kumar lauded the campaign by the WFP, saying that the campaign had aided his municipality achieve the goal of making the municipality free of malnutrition.