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UNICEF trucks in emergency food for drought-affected districts

Harare, 10 September 2002 - Twelve trucks, each carrying 30 metric tonnes (MT) of UNIMIX, arrived in Harare yesterday, after having crossed the border at Beitbridge last Sunday. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) hired the trucks to bring 360 MT of UNIMIX into Zimbabwe. These are part of an overall 600 MT consignment sourced from South Africa. The remaining 240 MT are expected to arrive in the country later this week. UNICEF is procuring another 600 MT of UNIMIX locally, bringing the total to 1200 MT, worth up to $700,000 USD.

The UNIMIX will be prepared as porridge. It is meant to provide supplementary feeding to children under five and to pregnant/lactating women. The first 600 MT of UNIMIX will enable UNICEF to feed 95,000 children and women for 3 months in 5 selected districts in Zimbabwe: Buhera, Mudzi, Mount Darwin, Chirumanzu and Gokwe North.

Community health workers and volunteers are currently being trained at district level through the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MoHCW). The training focuses on the preparation of porridge, as well as on health, hygiene and sanitation aspects related to porridge preparation and distribution. Notably the importance of ensuring use of clean and safe water, as well as dish and handwashing facilities is being stressed. Registration and monitoring of the children and women participating in UNICEF's supplementary feeding programme constitutes another key component of the training.

UNICEF provides weighing scales and height boards to monthly assess the impact on the nutritional status of children and women participating in the supplementary feeding scheme. Communities will provide firewood and cooking points to prepare the UNIMIX porridge. UNICEF will start its supplementary food distribution on Monday, 16 September. UNICEF will closely monitor and evaluate its feeding programme together with other UN agencies, donors, Government counterparts and NGOs.

"The UNICEF incentive to provide supplementary feeding derives from nutrition surveys conducted in August by the Zimbabwe National Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC), World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF", said Dr. Festo Kavishe, UNICEF Representative in Harare. These surveys were done as a follow-up to the MOHCW-UNICEF conducted nutritional assessment of last May. "The outcomes are alarming", Kavishe added. "In the period between May-August, the nutritional status of children under five years has further deteriorated". Wasting rates have increased from 6.4 per cent to 7.1 per cent, underweight from 20.4 per cent to 24.4 per cent, while stunting rose from 33% to 43.2 per cent.

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For more information, please contact:

Dr. Festo Kavishe, telephone in Harare, Zimbabwe -
00 263 4 703941/2

Muriel Mafico, telephone - 00 263 4 703941/2

Mayke Huijbregts telephone -00 263 4 703941/2