Vietnam children face malnutrition risk
HANOI - More than a hundred thousand children of ethnic minorities face
the greatest risk of malnutrition in Vietnam, compared with their city-based
counterparts in other parts of the rice exporting country, the United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
"Access to adequate food vary greatly over the year in the mountainous areas where
the minority people live," UNICEF said in a statement. "There was also a lack of
diversity in the diets and the access to basic health service is poor."
Greater economic prospects in major cities have curbed the number of malnourished
children, but there were vast numbers of under weight and stunted children in remote
and rural provinces, the statement said.
It said that up to 45.4 percent of minority children in the country's troubled Central
Highlands were suffering from malnutrition.
UNICEF did not provide an estimate in the statement of the number of children in the
remote regions suffering malnutrition.
An official population census in 1999 showed that Vietnam has nearly 6.0 million
children under five, including 354,320 in four Central Highland provinces.
The Central Highlands were hit by widespread anti-government protests by
impoverished ethnic minority people in February, the worst to hit the country in years.
UNICEF said that although Vietnam was one of the world's largest rice exporters, its
children were ranked among the most malnourished in the region.
Up to 36.4 percent of Vietnamese children aged under five were suffering from
stunted growth while 33.1 percent were underweight, it said.
Reuters - June 1st, 2001.
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