Sixteen thousand children of poor families around country will get free milk every day in a campaign by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to reduce malnutrition. The VND7 billion ($333,000) campaign, launched on Wednesday by the ministry's National Fund for Vietnamese Children, will last a year with every child getting two cartons of milk every day for two months. The campaign will begin at the start of next year on Ly Son Island in central Quang Ngai province. One in every three Vietnamese children under five is stunted with low consumption of milk being one of the reasons for the high malnutrition rate. The campaign began in 2008 with the support of the Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk), and has benefited nearly 300,000 children. (Vietnam News Dec 23 p3)
