Morocco receives $ 2.92 m to eliminate vitamins and minerals deficiencies

Morocco obtained a 2.92 million dollars grant from the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) to counter iron deficiency anemia and vitamin A and D deficiency related problems among women and young children.

This came in a press release in which GAIN notes that this grant, spread over three-year, allowed for launching a project that will enable 50 mills to produce flour fortified with iron, folic acid and B vitamins, and major producers of cooking oil to fortify their products with vitamin A and D.

The project is expected to benefit around 15 million Moroccans, says the same source.

In Morocco, fifth country to obtain a grant of such a scale from GAIN, iron deficiency anemia affects about a third of women in childbearing age and children under five, according to GAIN document.

At least a third of young children in Morocco also suffer from vitamin A deficiency, which kills some 1,500 children each year, it says.

The large-scale project aims, thus to eliminate vitamins A and D deficiencies, as well as iodine deficiency by 2010.

The non-profit Swiss foundation aims at contributing, by 2007, to the improvement of the nutritional status of at lease 600 millions people in 40 developing countries.