Kathmandu, April 18:

Children between the age of six months and five years will be administered Vitamin A capsules and deworming tablets throughout the country from tomorrow.

“Tomorrow, April 19, Nepal’s youngest children will need all the help they can get,” UNICEF Representative, Dr Suomi Sakai, said in a press statement issued here today.

Under the National Vitamin A Programme, some 3.3 million Vitamin A capsules are distributed to all children aged between six months to five years and 3.1 million deworming tablets are for the children aged between one to five years. “This distribution, which saves some 12,000 lives a year, is the largest exercise in child survival in Nepal,” said Dr Sakai.

“The process started months ago when the supplies first arrived in the country,” he said adding, “Now supplies are waiting in each ward and 48,000 Female Community Health Volunteers have been briefed to give them to the children.”

The statement said: “What these little children need tomorrow is for their mothers and other caregivers to feel safe. They need to feel confident that they can take their children to the distribution points in each ward, wait for them to get their dose of Vitamin A and deworming tablet, and return home in safety.”

“The violence in the last few days has been very frightening for many children and their families. It would be natural that parents be concerned about the possibility of exposing their youngest children to risk by taking them outside the house.

At the same time, we also know that half of the children in Nepal are already malnourished and many do not have a sufficient store of Vitamin A in their bodies to boost their immune system to ward off disease and help prevent blindness.”

“Children who don’t receive Vitamin A capsules have four times higher risk of dying than those who do receive it.”