Food for Famine Society Invited To Foreign Affairs Committee Meeting in Ottawa

(Newswire.net — April 24, 2015) Langley, BC — Executive Director & Founder of Food For Famine Society (FFF), Maria Martini was invited to Parliament Hill to be a key presenter at the Foreign Affairs & International Trade & Development Committee meeting on April 21, 2015. Maria shared her passion for Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) and congratulated the Government of Canada for their accomplishments of the Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Initiative (MNCH) that was established in 2010. A key goal of this program is to prevent the deaths of 1.3 million malnourished children under 5 years of age. This initiative perfectly aligns with FFF’s mandate to improve access to essential, micronutrient rich supplements like Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food.

 

Thanks to Langley’s MP, Mark Warawa, multiple meetings were organized on Parliament Hill with various members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade & Development. In a private meeting with the Minister of International Development, Christian Paradis, a potential partnership was discussed to see how FFF could help support the MNCH by providing RUTF to malnourished children in Africa. Senior Policy Advisor for International Development was pleased to learn that the MNCH initiative aligns with the 8 African countries Food For Famine has been actively supporting since 2012.

 

In light of the Program’s success, Parliament recently announced a 5 year extension and allocated $3.4 billion to further expand the MNCH programs.

 

Quote:

“Partnering with the Canadian Government will ensure that shipments of RUTF will continue to be a priority, ultimately saving the lives of many more children. We are proud to be in a position to assist with this initiative.”

– Maria Martini, Founder and Executive Director of Food For Famine Society 

 

Quick Facts:

• Government’s Maternal, Newborn & Health Program began in 2010 with a budget of $2.85 Billion

 

• MNCH’s goal is to prevent the deaths of 1.3 million children under the age of 5

 

• To date Food For Famine has sent 17 shipping containers of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food to malnourished children in 8 African countries

 

• 900 lives can be saved with each and every shipping container of RUTF