Five-year-old Lakshu sits by a fire in his home in Sawa Khola Village, Mugu District. The villagers are members of the Dalit community, considered the lowest caste in Nepal, and so they are among the country뭩 poorest. They report that price hikes have rendered basic food items unaffordable. Many are selling assets and reducing meals to cope. More than a quarter of the youngest children in the district are acutely or severely malnourished.In April 2009 in Nepal, the global economic downturn threatens to increase poverty in a country where many already live at the edge of subsistence. Nearly half of Nepal뭩 children under five are already underweight, and years of drought have greatly reduced agricultural production. Globally, the economic crisis is expected to increase poverty and hunger for tens of millions of people and to wipe out recent improvements in child survival rates. In South Asia, widespread job losses are threatening economies that depend on remittances sent from workers abroad. Millions of workers have been forced to return to home countries and regions where few jobs are available. Many families are coping by pulling their children ?often girls ?out of school and sending them to work. People are also buying cheaper, less nutritious foods, which is increasing rates of malnutrition, especially among young children and pregnant and lactating women. The negative impacts on education and nutrition will diminish children뭩 ability to learn and work in the future, extending the effects of the economic crisis over generations. UNICEF is responding to the crisis by establishing therapeutic feeding centres and nutritional monitoring programmes, and by distributing micronutrients and ready-to-use therapeutic foods.
