The project committee of Britain’s “Freedom from Hunger” campaign has accepted a new plan worked out by the medical department of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, to help feed needy Jewish infants in Morocco, it was announced here today by Charles H.Jordan, overseas director-general for JDC. The Central Jewish Fund for Relief and Rehabilitation and the British section of OSE have pledged up to $36, 400 for implementation of the project, Mr. Jordan said.
The long-term goal of the project, the official said, is to ensure sound nutrition for infants and children up to the age of 3. By the latter age, the needy Jewish children become eligible for enrollment in the JDC programs in day-care centers, schools and supplementary feeding centers.
A key role in the new program, Mr. Jordan said, will be assumed by the OSE maternal and child care center at Casablanca, That center now serves an average of 3, 000 children annually, thus reaching with its aid virtually every Jewish infant born in Casablanca, The new program sill benefit not only the infants, but their mothers as well.
First priority, under the new project, will go to mothers and to infants under five or six months old. The aim is to assure infants who have reached the age of 12 months, a chance for an adequate and sound diet which would bring them safely through the next two years, when the JDC-supported kindergartens can admit them.
“Now that funds are available to start this new project,” said Mr. Jordan,” JDC is confident that the training of the mothers as well as the feeding of their babies will go a long way toward overcoming the dangers from malnutrition during those early, formative years, which can leave such lasting disabilities for the rest of the children’s lives.” He added that “this is only a beginning.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
