Paulina Quintao – Research conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Alola Foundation in 2015 showed that 1,904 children under six years old were suffering from wasting, a type of malnutrition.

This research was conducted in Dili, Covalima and Oecusse by going house-to-house tomeasure the upper arm circumference of children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers to check for wasting.

WFP's Country Director in Timor-Leste, Stephen Kearney, said the objective was to check the nutrition status of households in the municipalities.

"This screening is important to detect who is malnourished and where they live, so we can support the Ministry of Health to provide treatment," Kearney said at a press conference.

According to the data, 2,431 women showed signs of wasting. He said wasting was a form of malnutrition where a person's weight is too low for their height.

He said it was important to identify cases of malnutrition as early as possible, particularly for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. He said the first 1000 days of a child's life was critical for their physical and mental development.

To respond to this issue, he said WFP distributed Timor Vita supplement, consisting of corn, soya flour and vitamins, to ensure that pregnant and breastfeeding women had a good nutrition intake.

Meanwhile, Alola Foundation Program Manager Maria Imaculada Guterres said the research only covered a few sukus (villages) in the three municipalities.

"Because we work with the xefe suku (village chief) – they take the sample [and] then our team does the screening and asks some questions about their nutrition status," she said.

There were 16,931 households involved in the research project, with the sample group comprising babies up to six months old and breastfeeding and pregnant women.

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. Alola Foundation is a local organization which fights for women's rights and also works to improve maternal and child health in Timor-Leste.

The research program was led by WFP in partnership with the Alola Foundation and World Vision-Timor-Leste, with funding from the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/children-youth/14070-1-904-children-suffer-from-malnutrition