Deworming Campaign Launched in Afghanistan by World Food Programme, UNICEF, and WHO

Kabul, Afghanistan, 16 September 2005 - Ahead of this weekend’s elections in Afghanistan, WFP has announced the launch of the 2005 national deworming campaign.

The government campaign, which aims to improve the health and intellectual development of six million children across Afghanistan, is also being supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Photo by WFP

Common disease

This national government programme is targeted at treating six-to-twelve-year-olds for intestinal parasites or worms, a common disease which leaves a high percentage of Afghan children feeling generally unwell.

In the long term, worm infections cause a range of problems, including reduced growth rate, learning problems and illnesses such as dysentry and anaemia.

Fortunately, worms can be eradicated with one 500 mg tablet of Mebendazol and the treatment is harmless to children not affected. UNICEF provided 6.5 million tablets for this year’s campaign and WHO contributed US$20,000 to buy one million.

Complex campaign

“It is tragic that children in this country are suffering because of worms when they can be so easily treated,” said Charles Vincent, WFP Country Director for Afghanistan.  “Deworming children will not only improve their general health but it will also enable them to study better at school.

“This campaign is complex, as it aims to reach millions of children, many of them in remote areas and many of them not even at school. But with ministries taking the lead and UN agencies pooling their expertise and resources, we can make a big difference,” he said.

Schools, orphanages, homes

WFP’s school feeding programme in Afghanistan currently benefits 1.4 million children.

This deworming initiative will be implemented in 8,800 educational establishments, including primary, non-formal and Koranic schools, as well as orphanages. Children not attending school will also targeted.

Training sessions

WFP has organised training sessions for about 9,000 teachers at provincial and district levels on how to distribute the tablets, as well as basic health and hygiene lessons to pass on to the children.

UNICEF will provide 24,000 copies of the health textbook “Facts for Life” to schools, as well as training for Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health focal points on its contents.

Two rounds

The deworming campaign will take place in two rounds. Six million children will be treated across the country in the coming weeks and in early 2006, there are plans for over one million of them to receive a second dosage.

This second round will take place in the major urban areas (Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif, Badakhshan, Ghazni) and provinces surrounding Kabul (Wardak, Logar, Kapisa, Parwan, Bamiyan, Kabul Province) due to the higher rates of infestation.

The numbers of children targeted for deworming has gone up from 4.5 million in 2004 to six million in 2005. The change is a combination of increased school enrolment and a revised estimate on the number of six-to-twelve year olds in Afghanistan.

WFP is solely responsible for the contents of this article.

WFP Statistics:

Over 90 percent of the world's hungry are prisoners of poverty. They are too poor to buy enough food. They spend all their time and energy trying to survive.

WFP's innovative food aid projects not only put food on the tables of the weakest and poorest: jobless mothers, school children, landless farmers and HIV orphans. They also help the hungry to secure food and an income by themselves, so they can break out of the poverty trap and build sustainable future.

In 2004, WFP development projects benefitted 24 million people

To learn more and find out how you can help go to:

http://www.wfp.org/food_aid/introduction/index.asp?section=12&sub_section=1

For further information contact:

Jackie Dent
WFP/Kabul
Tel. + 93 –70-282816 - 26 / Ext. 2527
Mob. +93-70-282547
jackie.dent@wfp.org

Ebadullah Ebadi
WFP/Kabul
Tel. + 93–70-282816 - 26 / Ext. 2371
ebadullah.ebadi@wfp.org

Khaled Mansour
WFP/Cairo
Tel. +2 02 5281730 /Ext 2600
Mob. +20-122-348671
khaled.mansour@wfp.org

Caroline Hurford
WFP/Rome
Tel. +39 06 6513 2330
caroline.hurford@wfp.org