New award opens opportunities for child health

October 12, 2006 by PATH

Maternal, newborn, and child health
Project to focus on infant and young child health and nutrition

Contact:
Teresa Guillien, 206.285.3500, tguillien@path.org

Seattle, October 12, 2006—PATH has been awarded a $46 million, five-year grant by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). This award will fund a global effort to improve infant and young child feeding practices—key to preventing death and illness among babies and children—in the developing world.

“This award is a chance to address one of the most insidious and persistent issues in global health—how to give the youngest children in the poorest countries the same chance at a healthy life as their counterparts in the industrial world,” said Chris Elias, president of PATH. “We are deeply excited to put our long commitment to the health of mothers and children to use on such a broad scale.”

The Infant and Young Child Feeding project will strengthen USAID’s leadership in child health and nutrition, providing innovative strategies to improve the nutritional status of infants and young children and increasing HIV-free child survival through exclusive breastfeeding, appropriate complementary feeding practices, and maternal nutrition. Infant and young child feeding is part of a continuum of critical nutrition and health practices that begins during pregnancy and continues through at least the first two years of life.

The Infant and Young Child Feeding project team is led by PATH and includes CARE, the Manoff Group, and University Research Co., LLC. Among our major collaborators are the Centre for International Child Health at University College, London; the Christian Children’s Fund; the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; the Emergency Nutrition Network; the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition; the University of the Western Cape, South Africa; and many other local and international organizations.