PANO – The “Save the Children” Organization and the World Bank (WB) signed an agreement on November 10 in Hanoi, to grant USD 2.82 million to a project named “Integrated activities to improve nutrition for Vietnamese children in northern mountainous areas”, which will be conducted in Yen Bai and Son La provinces in the period of 2017-2020.

The project is funded by the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) and implemented by the “Save the Children”, in collaboration with the Maternal and Child Health Department of the Ministry of Health.

At the signing ceremony

According to the project, the beneficiaries include children under 5 years old, women of childbearing age, pregnant women from ethnic minority groups, such as Hmong, Dao, and Thai, who are defined as the groups with the most seriously undersized child rates in the country (from 40 to 55%).

About 142,000 people in the two provinces’ four districts including 20 communes with 200 villages benefit from the project. In addition, the other beneficiaries of the project are all population of the 4 districts (about 375,000 people), the beneficiaries’ relativives, health workers and agricultural officials working in the project area.

The project will apply an integrated approach in addressing nutrition for children by combining different activities, such as organizing campaigns changing behavior; encouraging breastfeeding; improving feeding practices for infants and kids with diverse diets through household vegetable gardens.

Translated by Thuy Duong