KUCHING: Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah refutes the claim stating that 84 per cent of children in the rural areas under five years old are undernourished.
The Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister stated that having 84 per cent recorded as undernourished was simply not possible.
She pointed out that based on the data given by the health institute in 2022, only 15.6 per cent of the children below 5 years old in Sarawak was recorded as undernourished.
“For the number to jump to 84 per cent in two years is simply not possible. Moreover, since 2019, my ministry has allocated a yearly grant to be given to each registered nurseries and kindergartens in Sarawak to provide at least one balanced nutrition meal for the children.
“The RM5,000 grant each given ensures that our children, no matter where the nurseries or kindergartens are located, are given their balanced diet meal.
“In 2023, about 3,033 registered nurseries and kindergartens received this grant, hence, this year, we expect that the grant will at least benefit about 2,800 nurseries and kindergartens statewide,” she said.
She said this when officiating at the ‘Taska Di Tempat Kerja Si Cilik’ at Puncak Borneo Prison Complex here today.
Touching on the programme here, she congratulated the residents in the area as they now can enrol their children in the childcare centres.
She pointed out that as children below 4 years old have a faster brain development compared to those above their age, it is a must for educators to leverage the ability of their brain to learn.
“We hope that the children enrolment in this centre will be maximised because education is the basic rights of a child,” she said.
