Jordanian princess calls for improved food security, health and education for women and children in Pakistan

Jordanian princess calls for improved food security, health and education for women and children in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan has called on Pakistani authorities to ramp up nutrition aid for women and children in the wake of deadly floods ravaging the country. Around 37 percent of Pakistan’s 220 million inhabitants face food insecurity, according to World Food Program data. Eighteen percent of Pakistani children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, around 40 percent in the same age group are stunted and 29 percent are underweight. Concerns are rising that the situation will further deteriorate because of the flooding that has hit Pakistan recently — 30 million people in the South Asian nation have been left homeless amid the heaviest monsoon rains in decades, which have wreaked havoc across the country since June 14. Disaster-management authorities have since recorded at least 982 extreme weather-related deaths. The southwestern Balochistan province and Sindh, in the south, have been the worst hit areas. “The terrible floods that are currently happening in Pakistan will affect women and girls the most. Children will get diseases from water, so any good program should be nimble enough and flexible enough to provide a buffer to these shocks,” the princess, who is the WFP’s special adviser on mother and