KARAMOJA – The World Food Program (WFP), a United Nations agency has revealed that 84% of the households in Karamoja sub-region in northeastern Uganda cannot afford nutritious diet daily due to poverty characterized by food insecurity.
Mr. Mohamed Satti the head of UN WFP program Karamoja told PML Daily on Tuesday 27, of August at their UN offices in Moroto that poor diets among the
many households in Karamoja was the biggest challenge hampering the fight against malnutrition in Karamoja region.
He said most families have access to eat food with no component of proteins making it hard for their immune system to fight against malnutrition.
Mr. Satti noted that because of poor diets, it has caused the region to have the highest rate of moderately or severely thin women, which stands at 12%.
“There is need for mothers to be sensitized to know how to balance the food that they eat can also grow fat to help boost their immunity,” he said.
PML Daily learnt that Malnutrition has remained the biggest killer disease targeting children and women in Karamoja region.
World Health Organization (WHO) defines malnutrition as deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients.
WHO indicates that around 1.9 billion adults worldwide are overweight, while 462 million are underweight? An estimated 41 million children under the age of 5 years are overweight or obese, while some 159 million are stunted and 50 million are wasted.
Adding to this burden are the 528 million or 29% of women of reproductive age around the world affected by anemia, for which approximately half would be amenable to iron supplementation.
Currently, WFP program has put 55,000 malnourished mothers and their children under UN WFP malnutrition treatment in Karamoja.
