UN WFP, rice distributor join hands to feed malnourished pregnant women

The United Nations World Food Programme has announced a scheme for pregnant women from poor countries in alliance with Tilda, a basmati rice distributor, to provide two meals for every 5kg packet of Tilda rice sold in the UAE.

According to World Food Programme officials, the demand for food support is growing in the world, especially in countries like Syria and Yemen where a number of families displaced by the ongoing civil unrest face shortage of food.

About half of the people in Yemen and Syria are either hungry or on the edge of hunger, need food support from the World Food Programme while a large number of children in Yemen are also suffering from malnutrition. Inside Syria, WFP is currently reaching 2.5 million people with food assistance and plans to scale up its operations to reach 4 million people by October. The world community needs to support these countries with increased food aid,” said Elise Bijon, Partnerships and Business Development Manager, Mena, East Europe and Central Asia of the UN WFP.

She said about 870 million people in the world are facing malnutrition and the WFP programme could only help less than 100 million, showing  the wide gap in food support need.

The UN WFP has aligned with Tilda in the ‘Mums Helping Mums’  campaign to support its mother and child nutrition programmes in the underdeveloped world.

Speaking to the media, Deepak Tawani, regional manager, Tilda Middle East, said the company will achieve a target of 100,000 meals for expectant mothers in countries like Bangladesh, India and others.

Low birth weight can seriously affect a baby’s physical and cognitive development. The meal that the company donates will help give new born babies a good start in life. In the year 2013, the target is 305,000 meals.

According to the WFP, about 2.6 million children die every year due to malnutrition and 100 million children in developing countries suffer from malnutrition. Up to 17 million children are born malnutritioned.

“From one billion people suffering from malnutrition earlier, the figure has come down to 870 million, thanks to to our and other charities. However, there are still huge numbers of malnourished people in the world,” he said.

“We launched the scheme in London and we are extending the charity drive to the UAE this year. From July onwards the ‘Mums Helping Mums’ logo will be featured on Tilda’s 5 kg bags of basmati rice which will be available in all major supermarkets in the UAE. For every bag of rice sold, Tilda will provide two nutritious meals to a new or expectant mother in a developing country.

“As part of the programme, Tilda is offering a free downloadable recipe book which includes recipes from celebrities and bloggers – for every book downloaded free of cost from the company’s website, Tilda will donate a meal to mother-to-be in low-income countries, “ said Tawani.

Ashraf Hamouda, Head of Partnership and Business Development, United Nations WFP, MENA, Easter Europe and Central Asia, said: “Good nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life is essential for healthy development of a child, which is why WFP focuses its nutrition programmes on pregnant women, new mothers and young children. Partners like Tilda help to bring greater attention to this important cause.”

The ‘Mums Helping Mums’ campaign was launched in Britain in March 2012 to support WFP’s maternal and child health programmes in Bangladesh. This year, the campaign has been expanded to other Tilda markets such as the UAE and Canada and to new product ranges. To date, the campaign has raised over 600,000 meals.

He said corporate donations to WFP had dropped during recession, but contributions from the Middle East have now gone up.

Tilda is a premium  brand of basmati rice which is sold in 50 countries.

 

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