05 August 2024

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...
30 July 2024

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...
12 June 2024

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...
12 June 2024

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...
21 March 2024

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...
18 March 2024

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...
14 March 2024

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,...
21 June 2023

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...
07 March 2023

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...
01 June 2022

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…
09 March 2022

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…
15 December 2020

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...