Photo essay
Bridging the Gap – a working mother’s breastfeeding journey
In Pakistan, a joint UNICEF-Government initiative is empowering Lady Health Workers (LHW) to champion breastfeeding. This collaboration aims to create an enabling environment that helps mothers to successfully breastfeed their children and become advocates in their community. The National Nutrition Survey 2018 rev...
Article
Creating sustainable primary healthcare solutions for mothers and children
PESHAWAR / CHARSADDA, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, : Eighteen-month-old Rohal clings silently to his mother, Tanzeela Bano, as they wait at the triage desk in the Musa Zai Basic Health Unit (BHU), around 15 kilometres from Peshawar. Rohal, who has yet to receive his second dose of the Measles and Rubella (MR) vac...
Statement
Joint Statement by UNICEF, WHO & Pakistan Pediatric Association on importance of Breastfeeding
A joint statement by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pakistan Pediatric Association (PPA), has emphasised the importance of breastfeeding for infant and maternal health. Breastfeeding is the optimal way to nourish infants and protect their health. Breast milk provid...
Article
A recipe for success: Nourishing young minds and bodies
“We used to feed our children just bread and curry. We would break up the roti and put it into the spiced curry,” explains Seema, a mother of four. She says that she would often feed them the same foods she and her husband ate. “[But] sometimes they didn’t want to eat it, or they would have stomach issues and get...
Article
Surviving against the odds
Sujawal, Sindh:, “Everyone kept telling me, ‘She is not going to survive, you should prepare for her death,” shares a teary-eyed Farzana, holding her only child, Shabira in her arms as she squirms and wiggles out of her grasp and starts crawling. At 16 months, unlike most children her age, Shabira does not yet wal...
Article
Strengthening communities from the inside out
Rozan remembers how she used to feel when she was pregnant. After long days working in the fields, she would come home to look after her family and take care of the house. But she felt weak, low on energy, and unable to do even simple household tasks. Rozan’s first four children had all been born with low birthwei...
Press release
Fewer children dying before turning five in Southern Asia than ever before – UNICEF
KATHMANDU/ NEW DELHI, 13 March 2024, – The number of children dying under five years of age declined by two thirds over the past two decades in Southern Asia, according to new mortality estimates released by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Division and the World Bank Group. Southern Asia includes nine countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh,…, Notes to editors, Download photos and broll from South Asia, here,...
Article
Healing young lives through nutrition interventions
Swat, Khyber Pakthukhwa (KP), : “He was born very weak, we didn’t think he would survive,” says Hazrat Ali, holding his 19-month-old son, Sudais, in his lap. “I went to every hospital in the area but found no cure for his weakness.” Three months ago, a severely malnourished Sudais was brought to the UNICEF Integra...
Press release
Malnutrition in mothers soars by 25 per cent in crisis-hit countries, putting women and newborn babies at risk
NEW YORK, 7 March 2023, , –, The number of pregnant and breastfeeding adolescent girls and women suffering from acute malnutrition has soared from 5.5 million to 6.9 million – or 25 per cent – since 2020 in 12 countries hardest hit by the global food and nutrition crisis, according to a new report released by UN...
Article
Tackling malnutrition during COVID-19
JAFFARABAD, Pakistan:, “Helping women and children overcome their nutrition deficiencies has helped me overcome my personal challenges in life,” says 22-year-old Rabia Khatoon, a Nutrition Assistant at one of the Basic Health Units in Jaffarabad, a district of Pakistan in the south western Balochistan province. Portrait of a working nutrition assistant lady from…
Report
Pakistan National Guidelines for Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition
The Pakistan National Guidelines for Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) is an important document to be used for effective care and rehabilitation at the community level. These guidelines reflect the experiences gained over 5 years of implementing CMAM in Pakistan. Medical protocols are based on current national protocols and…
Article
New programme helps women and newborns survive and thrive in Pakistan’s North Eastern province
Peshawar, Pakistan - 15 December 2020:, Life has not always been easy on Gulsanga, a 27-year-old mother of two who lives in Khairabad, a village of Khyber district in Pakistan’s northeastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Together with her husband Kashif, a daily-wage laborer who believes that a woman’s place is ‘e...