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Azerbaijan

Porridge for growth

Weekly News
Some of the mothers in camps for internally displaced people in Azerbaijan have been put to the test of convincing their
children to eat porridge. "We'll see whether she likes it or not," says Rafiga Jafarova as she collects supplementary food
rations for her 2-year-old daughter Saida.

Little Saida is one of nearly 400 children who have been selected for a supplementary feeding programme in camps (population 34,000) run by the International Federation in southern Azerbaijan. The programme was initiated by the Azerbaijan delegation after a nutritional study showed that approximately 30 per cent of children under five years old were undernourished. In order to improve the children's health, their mothers are given the ingredients of a nutritional oat meal porridge on a weekly basis.

The mothers are responsible for cooking it and feeding it to their children.
"We have to make sure that the supplementary food goes only to the children identified as undernourished and therefore we
monitor their growth every week", explains Irada Shirinova, a senior nurse working in one of camps. The programme will run for three months and then be continued if necessary.