One in Five Children Suffer From Chronic Malnutrition, Said UNICEF
UNICEF Global Director of Child Nutrition and Development, Victor Aguayo, June 7, 2024 Photo: EFE
June 7, 2024 Hour: 8:56 pm
“They are apparently healthy children in communities where 30 to 40 percent of them are chronically malnourished. It is a problem of normalization and it is common that it is not identified as a priority”.
On Friday, UNICEF warned that one in five children under two suffer from chronic malnutrition in Ecuador, a figure that reaches three in ten in rural and indigenous communities.
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“They are apparently healthy children in communities where 30 to 40 percent of them are chronically malnourished. It is a problem of normalization and it is common that it is not identified as a priority,” said the global director of Nutrition and Child Development of this United Nations body, Spanish Víctor Aguayo.
However, Aguayo said that, despite the normalization of this problem among the most vulnerable sectors of society, “it is the responsibility of the Government, not UNICEF” to prevent and minimize the impact of child malnutrition
Still, “The children of Ecuador are the children of UNICEF. Count on our commitment to support the Ecuadorian State and communities to prevent and reduce chronic child malnutrition in the country,” he said. The representative of the fund, urged and demanded the State to define this problem as “a priority situation”, because the trends are to go in progress.
“The children of Ecuador are the children of UNICEF. Count on our commitment to support the Ecuadorian State and communities to prevent and reduce chronic child malnutrition in the country,”
The representative of the fund, urged and demanded the State to define this problem as “a priority situation”, because the trends are to go in progress.
UNICEF said that, of the Ecuadorian child population, about 20% of children do not grow up with sufficient nutrients or access to safe water during the first thousand days of life.
Along with Guatemala, Ecuador is one of the Latin American countries with the highest incidence of child malnutrition.
Autor: CC
Fuente: EFE
