The director of governmental welfare agency Bienestar Familiar questioned the validity of UNICEF’s claim that 12 percent of Colombian children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
Director Maria Elvira
Forero criticized the NGO’s report released Wednesday saying that “the figures presented by UNICEF are refutable because the source of their claims are not cited”.
She added that Bienestar Familiar’s figures, based on information provided by government statistics department DANE, are more credible and calculate that from 2003 to 2005 between 580 and 700 children died from malnutrition.
The official said taht 5 billion pesos have been spent in the last four years to combat malnutriton in children less than five years old.