Inflation in Cambodia re-threat child malnutrition
A program for feeding students in schools in Cambodia.
AFP
In Cambodia, rising prices are threatening thousands of children with malnutrition in one of the poorest Asian countries, prompting NGOs to launch agricultural learning programs in schools to find a way out of the crisis.
After the "Covid-19" outbreak subsided, economic activity timidly rebounded, but international pressures, especially the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, are clearly evident in the Asian country.
Some small traders say they have lost half of their income, such as the noodle seller, Shawn Puthi, (31 years), in the village of Shroe Nyang Ngon (North), which is about a two-hour drive from Siem Reap.
Its customers have become more scarce, after the country has suffered economically as a result of the “Covid-19” pandemic, in addition to the current rise in energy prices.
Sean Boothe, a mother of two, says she worries about their health.
As for her, she "reduces her food rations sometimes in order to ensure the provision of food for her two children."
At the same time, food prices increased at an average rate of more than 5.6% year on year, while the highest increase was in vegetable oil prices, which rose by almost 35%.
The Cambodian Office of the United Nations Nutrition stated that “high food prices may exacerbate already high levels of malnutrition in children, at a time when the country was beginning to show signs of recovery after the economic shock caused by the pandemic.”
Rapid inflation threatens to undermine efforts to combat malnutrition among the youngest.
About 67% of children under the age of five were malnourished in 2014.
At Angkor Children's Hospital in Siem Reap, malnutrition cases increased from 59 in 2019 to 77 in 2021, including one death of a five-month-old infant.
Sometimes families are so poor that they have to dilute the infant formula with water, says nurse Seroen Fancy, who is in charge of the nutrition department at Angkor Hospital.
"We have concerns about their future development, especially their brain development, which may slow down when it comes time for them to enter school, at the age of five or six," she says.
Prior to the pandemic, the floods of 2020 weakened the situation in Cambodia, which is already vulnerable to climate change.
A team from the hospital is scouring rural areas to spot the most severe cases of malnutrition before it's too late.
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