Japan donates $5 million to improve health and nutrition care for children in North Korea

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 12 Aug 2004 - 13:00 PDT

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The Japanese Government has announced the donation of $5 million to support UNICEF's work in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

This generous donation will help provide children and women in the DPR Korea with access to the most essential primary health and nutrition care services, as well as access to clean water for families in large urban areas. About 15 million people, including 1.3 million children under five years of age, will benefit.

A study of 3,965 children in selected institutions in DPR Korea, carried out in 1997 by WFP and the government, estimated that between 0 per cent and 33 per cent of children under seven in DPRK were suffering from moderate and severe malnutrition. The nutrition survey carried out by the Government and the international community in 1998 found that some two per cent of the children were severely malnourished. Based on the available population data, this translates into some 62,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition.

The donation by the Government of Japan will help provide nutritional rehabilitation, including therapeutic milk, for severely malnourished children and will provide pregnant mothers with improved obstetric care and delivery services. It will enable UNICEF to supply medicines and equipment for production of oral rehydration solution, which will be used in treatment of illnesses including diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, anaemia, eye and skin infections.

The donation will also help provide a water system for a rural town, to ensure a safe water supply for its population.

This is the single largest donation given in response to UNICEF's appeal for the DPR Korea in this year's consolidated appeal. The $5 million donation is urgently needed to help meet some of the basic survival, health and nutritional needs of children and women in the DPR Korea.

UNICEF

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