ONU pide 114 millones de dólares para ayudar a mujeres del Cuerno de África

A woman feeds her severely malnourished child therapeutic milk F75 at the UNICEF-supported feeding unit of Bissidimo Hospital, in the East Harerghe Zone of Oromia Region. The milk, rich in micronutrients, is the first phase of a feeding regimen - eight times daily - that helps the body recover from the shock of malnutrition and condition it to digest food. In May 2008 in Ethiopia, UNICEF is appealing for US$50 million to dramatically scale-up responses to severe malnutrition now affecting some 126,000 children. Up to 6 million children under-five are in need of preventive health and nutrition interventions almost half of the entire population of 14 million under-five children. Conditions are most critical in the drought-affected eastern regions of Oromia, Somalia and Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR). Ongoing conflict in the Somali (Ogaden) Region is aggravating these conditions. All parts of the country are at risk as drought, loss of livestock, limited food supplies and increased prices for food, fuel and fertilizer contribute to the worst humanitarian crisis in the country since 2003. Since 2004, UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) have worked with the Government to implement an Enhanced Outreach Strategy of targeted supplementary feeding and other nutrition support (including nutritional screening of under-five children as well as pregnant or lactating women, Vitamin A supplementation, de-worming and measles vaccinations). But this coverage is now threatened. Only 5 per cent of the US $20 million for emergency feeding programmes has been funded this year and an additional US $30 million is needed to support related health, nutrition and water and sanitation programmes.