Islamabad - The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a nutrition drive for 1.5 million women across the country.

In this connection a training workshop was organised here on Friday to train its social mobilisers on nutrition. These master trainers will create awareness among 1.5 million beneficiary mothers through 50,000 BISP Beneficiary Committees (BBCs) in 32 districts, said a news release.

The training was attended by Chairperson BISP Marvi Memon, Country Director WFP Finbarr Curran, Deputy Country Director WFP Stephen Gluning, WFP Head of Nutrition Cecilia Garzon, Secretary BISP Yasmeen Masood, WFP Policy Officer Nutrition Dr Ali Ahmad Khan, team leaders, cluster incharges and social mobilisers of BISP partner firms Aurat Foundation and Mott MacDonald Pakistan.

In her inaugural address, Chairperson BISP said that it is beginning of a revolution as the behavioural change brought through these trainings would help in improving IQ levels, thus enhancing productivity of future generations.

She added that this partnership between BISP and WFP would create a significant impact at grass- root level by reducing malnourishment and stunting, as it would benefit the poorest of the country.

Curran stated that this initiative would help in reaching out to the most vulnerable segment of society where malnutrition and stunting rates are alarmingly high.

 WFP attaches great importance to partnership with BISP- the premier social safety net and is passionate in carrying this partnership forward to improve food and nutrition security in the country.The training comprised of three sessions. In first session Dr Ali highlighted the importance of intelligent spending on nutritional food within available budget.

He emphasised that malnutrition can be curbed if mothers give their children fresh fruit, vegetables, pulses, eggs,  meat, milk, boiled  water and mould their way of cooking as to preserve the nutrients present in food. 

The second session took into account mother child health and third session focused exclusively on mother health as healthy mothers are able to raise healthy children. While explaining the role of nutrition in development, Dr Ali said that the nutritive food enhances the immunity of children that results in their better physical and mental growth.

Healthy children perform better in education, are more productive and contribute to the development of society and country in a better fashion.

Chairperson BISP wished the mobilisers good luck and said that this is a great responsibility on their shoulders, as 1.5 million women is a huge number that can register a considerable impact on the stats sheet of the country.

This training was first in the series of workshops that will be conducted in Bahawalpur, Sukkur, Sialkot, Abbotabad, Peshawar, Quetta, and Gilgit within one month.