GAIN and Dubai Cares Launch a Comprehensive Two-Year School Feeding Program in Bangladesh

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 30, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- In a move to increase child health and nutrition in Bangladesh, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Dubai Cares, the UAE-based philanthropic establishment launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop and implement in Bangladesh a school feeding program to address the needs of low-income families. Limited access to adequate nutrition and education co-exists widely across Bangladesh, especially in high food-insecure areas such as flood-affected and remote rural regions where children live on a diet which is deficient of energy, protein and micronutrients. Nutritious school meals encourage poor households to send their children to school and to help keep them there.  This is critically important in a country like Bangladesh where less than half of children attain functional literacy.

The two organizations will provide primary school children living in low income families with a variety of fortified foods on a sustained basis. The program will use a centralized food preparation model in combination with low cost interventions such as nutritional supplementation, provision of offsite processed foods and snacks, nutrition education, de-worming and capacity building of educators and policymakers.  

At the signing of the MoU, Tariq Al Gurg, CEO of Dubai Cares said, "Children make up 25 per cent of the one billion people hungry or undernourished in the world today. The impact of the lack of food and nutrition on children's education is a serious issue. In line with our strategic partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we have joined efforts with GAIN to develop a robust, cost-effective and sustainable two-year school feeding program that includes the provision of school meals in combination with a variety of nutritional interventions catering to over 88,000 children."

"By preparing the food at a central facility and distributing it to schools," Al Gurg added, "the cost will be significantly lower through economies of scale, reduced workload for school employees and reduced chances of misuse of commodities. At the same time supplementary food such as fortified yoghurt, biscuits, fortified bread and fortified food supplements with different nutritional qualities will be sourced from the private sector, enhancing the local economy."

"This partnership with Dubai Cares will provide invaluable support to schoolchildren in Bangladesh," said Marc Van Ameringen, Executive Director of GAIN. "GAIN is proud that this partnership will build upon existing ties with Dubai, the UAE and the region to reach out to a larger number of children and give them hope for a better and brighter future," Marc Van Ameringen added.

This program builds on the "School Feeding Campaign" launched by Dubai Cares under the direction of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum during the holy of month of Ramadan earlier this year, as part of its endeavors to help attain the UN Millennium Development Goal 2 of achieving universal primary education by 2015.

About Dubai Cares

Dubai Cares, a UAE-based philanthropic establishment, was launched in September 2007 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai to improve children's access to primary education in developing countries.

Dubai Cares works in accordance with globally recognized best practices for international NGOs, and has active partnerships with organizations such as Care International, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, OXFAM, Room to Read, Save the Children, Medecins Sans Frontieres, UNICEF and UNRWA. It implements comprehensive primary education programs in 24 countries to help attain the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 2 of achieving universal primary education. Dubai Cares funds primary education projects that increase access to quality education by focusing on the integrated provision of infrastructure, health & nutrition, water & sanitation and quality capacity building.

To learn more, please visit www.dubaicares.ae

About GAIN

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is an alliance driven by the vision of a world without malnutrition. GAIN is a Swiss foundation that mobilizes public-private partnerships and provides financial and technical support to deliver nutritious foods to those people most at risk of malnutrition. It was created in 2002 at a Special Session of the UN General Assembly on Children. GAIN is delivering improved nutrition to close to 400 million people, half of whom are women and children, in more than 25 countries. GAIN's goal is to reach more than one billion people with fortified foods that have sustainable nutritional impact. GAIN is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and its presence in Cairo, Johannesburg, Nairobi, New Delhi, Shanghai and Washington D.C. supports programs. For more information, please visit: http://www.gainhealth.org/.

SOURCE Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)