KINSHASA - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a US$500,000 contribution from the Government of the Republic of Korea to help fight worryingly high malnutrition among women and children in central Democratic Republic of Congo.
WFP will use the funds in Kasai Central province to provide food for more than 2,000 children, and to train more than 4,000 pregnant women and nursing mothers on better nutrition, hygiene, breastfeeding and health habits.
WFP will also provide food to the broader community during the lean or 'hungry' season between harvests as well as promoting good nutrition and health practices.
The funding helps address the escalating effects of recent displacement, COVID-19 and other challenges in central DRC, with the country overall now facing one of the world's biggest food crises in terms of number of people affected and Kasai central one of the provinces worst affected. Countrywide, some 22 million people are acutely hungry; one in every two children under five suffers from chronic malnutrition. Indeed, one out of every three deaths among young children can be attributed directly to malnutrition.
To date, Korea has contributed US$2.76 million to WFP's work in the DRC.
