QRC team in Yemen to assess malnutrition

Qatari Red Crescent (QRC), in co-ordination with the Yemeni Red Crescent Society, has dispatched a trained specialist team to assess the dimensions of malnutrition in Yemen. The team will assess the problem, especially among children under five, pregnant and lactating women, as recent statistics of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef ) showed that malnutrition is increasing in some Yemeni provinces. The team will train health personnel on how to detect cases of malnutrition categories as well as food treatment methods and will also prepare proposals for intervention in accordance with priorities. QRC is also expected to launch next month a relief programme to be carried out  in partnership with the Yemeni Red Crescent to reduce  malnutrition problems among children. United Nations reports on the food crisis experienced by Yemen indicated that about 7mn people - a third of the country’s population - suffer from food insecurity, half  a million children suffer from acute malnutrition across the country and that more than 50% of children under the age of five are stunted, while more than 45% of Yemen’s children are underweight and over 12% of them suffer from ‘wasting’.