LUANDA, Jun 15, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Angolan government has made considerable achievements in carrying out a nutrition program which benefits at least 4 million people, or 28.57 percent of Angola's population of 14 million, the Angolan official news agency ANGOP reported on Friday.
Paulina Semedo, an official from the Angolan Health Ministry, was quoted as saying that "the project of nutrition in vitamin A has benefited around 3 million children and 1 million mothers."
Addressing the closing ceremony of the international seminar on food and rural development on Thursday in Lubango, the capital of Angola's southern province of Huila, Semedo said "the Angolan government has been implementing the project over the past five years due to lack of micro-nutrients, especially in pregnant women and children."
According to Semedo, the program of nutrition launched by the health ministry aims mainly at dealing with the cases of malnutrition and deficit of nutrients.
Today, five years after the 27-year civil war ended, Angola still faces serious challenges -- nearly half of the rural population suffers from food insecurity, many children under the age of five are chronically malnourished and almost 70 percent of the population live below the poverty line.