Two hundred and 40 thousand citizens from the municipalities of Bailundo, Huambo and Mungo began, this Tuesday, to increase their knowledge regarding nutrition, in an initiative by the international non-governmental organization People In Need (PIN)
As part of the Civil Society for Nutrition project, the program will be implemented over the next three years, in partnership with the Angolan non-governmental organization Association for the Development and Social Framework of the Vulnerable Population (ADESPOV), at a cost estimated at one million and 111 thousand Euros.
The project also foresees the training of 300 social actors, distributed in the areas of education, health, environment and energy and water, in addition to municipal administrators, traditional and religious authorities.
With this measure, non-governmental organizations intend to join efforts related to the strategic strengthening and empowerment of communities in matters related to combating malnutrition and, consequently, reducing the mortality rate.
Data recently released by the Health office in the province of Huambo points to the registration, between January and October of this year, of 5 thousand and 226 cases of malnutrition, compared to 5 thousand and 280 in the same period of 2022.
Of this figure, ANGOP found, 226 children under five died, while in 2022 there were 266.
During the project launch session, the director of the local Health office, Mário Costa Rodrigues, praised the efforts of non-governmental organizations (PIN and ADESPOV) in empowering communities in matters of nutrition.
The official, who spoke on behalf of the governor of the province of Huambo, Lotti Nolika, reaffirmed the local government’s desire to continue working with different social groups in combining efforts to respond to different challenges, focused on the well-being of communities, the sense of promoting social and economic development.
The general director of ADESPOV, Julião Agostinho, said that communities will be empowered, through the training of actors involved in the nutrition chain, with the participation of various sectors to gain a multidimensional perspective and, at the same time, increase knowledge in this matter.
The Civil Society for Nutrition project covers the provinces of Huambo and Huíla, where it aims to reach 540 thousand children, adolescents and adult women, including 150 representatives of government authorities, 90 religious leaders and an equal number of traditional authorities.
PIN is a non-governmental organization of Czech origin, which has been working in Angola since 2006 in the areas of education, food and nutritional security, community health, water, sanitation and hygiene, child protection, gender, civil society and human rights.
