Welfare dept responds to Unicef report

KUALA LUMPUR: The Welfare Department is studying the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) report on marginalised children that was based on a survey on poverty and denial of rights of urban children living in flats in Kuala Lumpur, issued on Feb 26.
Its director-general Mohd Fazari Mohd Salleh said the department would work with Unicef to discuss on the findings which claimed that children living in People's Housing Project (PPR) areas in the country had been mostly identified to suffer from malnutrition and retardation.
He said he took very seriously, the 76-page report consisting of survey data collected from 966 household heads and 2,142 children in 17 different locations around the capital and Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
"The department's response is to reach out to the groups through the 1Malaysia welfare roadshow which began on March 1 and will conclude at the end of this month.
"The programme involving the community, volunteers, local leaders, the government and private sector will seek out those who are eligible for aid from the department," he told Bernama when met after being a guest in the Nine 11 programme produced by Bernama News Channel here today. — Bernama