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UNICEF begins new phase of campaign to reduce malnutrition in Togo

UNICEF begins new phase of campaign to reduce malnutrition in Togo

Severe malnutrition affects 14 per cent children under five in Togo
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has launched the second part of its multi-phase campaign to detect and treat widespread malnutrition in Togolese children.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has launched the second part of its multi-phase campaign to detect and treat widespread malnutrition in Togolese children.

The agency is now targeting dozens of more isolated villages in the Savanes and Kara regions in the north of the West African country and the Maritime region in the far south after earlier reaching bigger population centres, according to a statement released by UNICEF this week.

Eventually UNICEF expects to treat almost 77,000 children, provide nutritional supplements to more than 1 million kids and offer awareness-raising about good food practices and breast-feeding to over 90,000 pregnant or new mothers.

So far it has already opened 134 nutritional rehabilitation centres, trained more than 1,750 health agents and supplied more than 200 tons of food, medicines and related materials.

At least 14 per cent of Togolese children under the age of five are currently estimated to be malnourished, with many parents so poor they cannot pay for transport for their suffering children to be treated at the nearest health-care centre.