{"id":296463,"date":"2025-03-27T11:35:52","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T03:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=296463"},"modified":"2025-03-27T11:35:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T03:35:54","slug":"unicef-warns-14-million-children-face-malnutrition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=296463","title":{"rendered":"UNICEF warns 14 million children face malnutrition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/assets\/news_photos\/2025\/03\/27\/image-258495-1743044790.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>UNITED NATIONS, March 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; At least 14 million children face hunger and a heightened risk of malnutrition or death this year, UNICEF warned Wednesday, as major international donors like the United States slash aid budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The United Nations children&#8217;s agency urged governments and philanthropic institutions to contribute to its Child Nutrition Fund to head off a wave of starvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said great progress had been made in eradicating child hunger since the start of the century, but these gains could quickly be lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Good nutrition is the foundation of child survival and development, with impressive returns on investment,&#8221; she said, in a UNICEF statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Dividends will be measured in stronger families, societies and countries, and a more stable world,&#8221; Russell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since US President Donald Trump returned to office two months ago, his billionaire advisor Elon Musk&#8217;s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has gutted the USAID agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A judge has ordered a halt to the effort, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has confirmed that USAID is cancelling 83 percent of the programs from its budget of $42 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other major donor countries, such as Britain, have recently cut or frozen international aid as they seek to control deficits while boosting defense spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Russell warned that 2.4 million children suffering from acute malnutrition will miss out on UNICEF&#8217;s &#8220;ready-to-use therapeutic food&#8221; for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Up to 2,300 centers providing critical care for kids facing starvation could close, and 28,000 UNICEF-supported feeding centers are also at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All in all, Russell warned, 14 million children &#8220;are expected to face disruptions to nutrition support and services&#8221; this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The funding crisis comes at a time of unprecedented need for children who continue to face record levels of displacement, new and protracted conflicts, disease outbreaks, and the deadly consequences of climate change,&#8221; Russell said. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UNITED NATIONS, March 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; At least 14 million children face hunger and a heightened risk of malnutrition or death this year, UNICEF warned Wednesday, as major international donors like the United States slash aid budgets. The United Nations children&#8217;s agency urged governments and philanthropic institutions to contribute to its Child Nutrition Fund to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":296464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,208,215,209,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296463"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296465,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296463\/revisions\/296465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/296464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}