Kiwanis strives to eliminate child malnutrition

Kiwanis Sri Lanka is working with the Ministry of Health to eliminate malnutrition amongst children in Sri Lanka.

Malnutrition prevents children from reaching their full potential for growth and directly impacts their learning ability.

In Sri Lanka almost one out of five children is born with a low birth weight, 14% of under fives suffer from acute malnutrition and nearly 58% of infants between six to 11 months and 38% between 12 to 23 months are anemic (www.unicef.org).  

The Ministry of Health recommends that each undernourished child be given special Nutri biscuits manufactured on a formula provided by UNICEF for 90 days to bring the child up to the required state of health and weight.

 In accordance with this recommendation, Kiwanis Sri Lanka launched the ‘Eliminate Malnutrition Project’ and has so far provided 125 under nourished children of Etul Kotte MOH Division – Baddegana Centre with the Nutri biscuits at a cost of Rs 332,800 funded out of private donations.

The results so far on this pilot project have been most encouraging. Based on this experience Kiwanis plans to gradually cover other centers and divisions across the country.

Kiwanis Club has been serving the underprivileged children of Sri Lanka for the past eight years. Persons who are interested in getting involved in this project could get in touch via email to [email protected].