Rural mothers’ welfare
17,005 women assisted under food voucher program
AS many as 17,005 women have been assisted under the food voucher for rural pregnant mothers’ scheme since its inception in 2014.
The assistance disbursed totalled $6.4 million in budget allocation, says Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa.
She was responding to questions from this newspaper on the status of the food voucher program.
“The objective of the food voucher program is to improve maternal health and reduce child mortality by incentivising early access to reproductive healthcare, particularly for rural women,” she said.
“With the introduction of this program we have seen an increase in the number of rural mothers attending clinics in the early stages of pregnancy and following it up right through until childbirth.”
Mrs Vuniwaqa said the scheme aimed to encourage women — especially in rural areas — to attend clinics in the early stages of their pregnancies after the health ministry showed concerns on women missing early prenatal clinic visits.
“The second reason was to enable these mothers to procure nutritious food items during their term of pregnancy to help in the development and wellbeing of the baby and as well as the mothers themselves.
“Again, this was information derived by MOH whereby they have noticed that babies born in these rural settings tend to be undernourished.”
The scheme, Mrs Vuniwaqa said, was established in partnership with the Ministry of Health.
“If a woman registers in the first month of her pregnancy, she is eligible to receive the total nine months of her pregnancy and another month after birth, a total of 10 months altogether. The assistance is $50 per month.”