Beira, Mozambique, June 30, 2025 (Lusa) - The Buddhist charity Tzu Chi has helped over 2,000 malnourished children in the province of Sofala, central Mozambique, since 2021, the organisation said on Monday.
In a statement, the charity said it assisted the children as part of an ongoing nutrition initiative in the districts of Buzi, Nhamatanda, Dondo, and Beira, in Sofala Province, which involves the monthly distribution of fortified porridge and basic food baskets to children facing malnutrition and their families.
“With this project, we aim to eliminate severe acute malnutrition, especially in this province. The province’s socioeconomic conditions currently limit nutrition, so we focus on reducing malnutrition,” said Vannesia Figueiredo, coordinator of the Nutritional Rehabilitation Project at the Tzu Chi Mozambique Foundation, as the statement quoted her.
Last year, medical teams assisted almost a thousand malnourished children in that part of the country: ‘In addition to fortified porridge and basic food baskets, we invest heavily in cooking demonstrations to encourage and educate families to adopt healthy and more nutritious practices in their daily lives, using locally produced foods, to promote good nutrition,’ the same document adds, quoting the coordinator.
On 20 June, Mozambique’s government launched a new food security strategy aimed at reducing chronic child malnutrition in the country, a challenge that climate change has intensified in recent years.
The strategy aims to “have healthy, nutritious agriculture on a scale that can solve the country’s food problem,” said Roberto Albino, Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries, on that date, when launching the new Food and Nutrition Security Policy and Strategy (PESAN).
The country has made progress in reducing food insecurity, and chronic malnutrition, especially among children under 5, now affects 37% of this population group, according to government data released in 2023.
To address the problem, the team developed PESAN 2024-2030 to integrate multisectoral efforts to ensure food and nutrition security throughout the country, said Roberto Albino.
The document launched on 20 June aims to “provide quality technical assistance and create mechanisms to encourage those with technical and professional training to disseminate their knowledge to producers in their communities,” he added.
According to the executive secretary of the Technical Secretariat for Food and Nutritional Security (SETSAN), over the last ten years, the rate of chronic malnutrition in children under 5 years of age has fallen from 43% (2013) to the current 37% (2023), levels that specialists still consider very high when compared to World Health Organisation recommendations.
Civil society organisations in the country have warned of the urgent need to combat child malnutrition in Mozambique, a situation that climate and security factors have exacerbated.
PME/ADB // ADB.
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