This is the VOA SpecialEnglish Development Report.
A new program has been launched to provide children in developingcountries with more healthy foods.
Officials made the announcement this month during a three-dayspecial conference on children at the United Nations.
The new program is called “GlobalAlliance for Improved Nutrition,” or GAIN. It aims to save at leasttwo-thousand-million children around the world from health problemslinked to the lack of healthy foods.
Eating foods that lack nutrients can lead to serious healthproblems. For example, when pregnant mothers do not get enoughnutrients, their babies may be born with development problems. Thebaby’s brain might not grow to full size. A lack of importantvitamins and minerals in food causes many serious health problemsincluding blindness.
Many important people in both government and business are workingon the GAIN program. They include the richest man in America, BillGates. He started Microsoft, the company that makes computerprograms and operating systems. Two years ago, Mister Gates and hiswife Melinda decided to use some of their money to create a privatefoundation in Seattle, Washington. The foundation is the biggestnot-for-profit organization in the world, withtwenty-four-thousand-million dollars.
The Gates Foundation will give fifty-million dollars over fiveyears to the GAIN program. The money will be used to add vitaminsand minerals to common foods, such as oil, flour and rice.
Several large American food companies are also involved in theprogram. They are Kraft Foods, Procter and Gamble, and H-J-Heinz.These companies manufacture food products that are sold around theworld. Through GAIN, the companies will add extra vitamins andminerals to foods sold in poor nations. The companies will alsoprovide governments and small food producers with technology toimprove the nutritional value of foods eaten in local communities.Some of the added nutrients include iron, vitamin A, iodine andfolic acid.
The World Health Organization, several other U-N agencies and theWorld Bank are involved in the GAIN project. So are the governmentsof Japan, Germany and the United States. Organizers say the programis an investment in the future and could save millions of lives.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss.