The figures pub-lished in local media show 104 children and lactating mothers have died of severe malnutrition in the past two years in northeastern Badakh-shan province.
Embezzlement in the RUTF, ready-to-use therapeutic food to counter malnutrition, has been a big cause of under-nourishment.
Millions of dollars are spent every year in Afghanistan on combating malnutrition. How-ever, this food (RUTF) is sold by impoverished families and by the officials concerned at times.
An RUTF packet sells for 15 to 20 afghanis in the market, but deserving children and mothers can rarely benefit from it. Dr. Ahmad Amin, UNICEF nu-trition officer for the north-eastern zone, said 1.1 million children in Afghanistan were malnourished and that parents needed to take care of them from pregnancy until they turned two. He stressed parents must take care of their children’s health during the period to prevent malnutrition, because it caused mental and physical weaknesses, lack of immunity and even death.“RUTF is the food that pre-vents malnutrition in children and breastfeeding mothers, but it is sold by poor mothers after they receive it from health centres.
