DPRK: Indian Government Official Meets Children Receiving Indian-funded Nutritional Assistance

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On 14 September His Excellence, Mr. Sanjay Singh, Secretary East of the Ministry of External Relations, took time off to travel outside Pyongyang to visit children in institutions and hospitals benefitting from India’s contribution to WFP’s operation in DPRK. India's US${esc.dollar}1 million donation was translated into 900 metric tons of soya beans and 373 metric tons of wheat, which were used to make blended foods enriched with vitamins and minerals, to be distributed directly to school children and children in orphanages and hospitals. More than 120,000 children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are receiving these vital food supplies thanks to the Indian assistance. WFP food aid monitors are currently seeing increasing numbers of malnourished children being brought to hospitals which are often ill-equipped to treat them due to lack of medicines and supplies.  A third of all children under five in DPRK are already chronically malnourished, and many more are at risk of slipping into acute stages of malnutrition if targeted assistance is not sustained.