August 04, 1999 
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| August 04, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| Southeast Asia More than 8 million children face malnutrition JAKARTA - President B.J. Habibie has expressed concern over the plight of more than eight million children less than five years old who are facing malnutrition. "We could not imagine our future leaders having poor nutrition or facing malnutrition," the president said during the launch of a national movement to fight malnutrition. He warned that if the problem is left unsolved, these children will enter the country's workforce 20 years from now without any competitive edge. Citing a 1998 nationwide survey on the country's social and economic conditions, he said that one third of children less than five years old are facing malnutrition, along with pregnant women and nursing mothers. Habibie said that in the past 20 years, there had been only rare cases of malnutrition in the country. The problem, he said, arose during the economic crisis in mid-1977, which weakened people's purchasing power, and was exacerbated by poor knowledge of nutrition. "Apparently, bloating [due to starvation] is also found in fertile areas," he said. Habibie said he is thus launching a movement to fight malnutrition through four main strategies: the empowerment of the family, integrated mother-and-child health care, inter-sectoral cooperation, and an increase in the provision and quality of medical services. (Asia Pulse/Antara) | |||||||||
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