N.Z. wholemilk biscuits for Asian children

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33314, 27 August 1973, Page 6

N.Z. wholemilk biscuits for Asian children

The Jaycees’ national campaign to raise more than $250,000 to provide wholemilk biscuits to children in South-East Asia is well under way.

Most householders and schoolchildren have received little cardboard boxes for contributions to the New Zealand Wholemilk Biscuit Appeal.

When collection day comes on September 8. those who have generously dropped coins and notes into their boxes will have the satisfaction of knowing that money ’they will never miss will give some child, now crying with hunger somewhere, a chance to survive.

Many families have put their box on the table, where

everyone enjoying a good dinner is reminded that even 4c a day will help provide the protein needed by a sickly child in Vietnam, India, New Guinea, and many other places where there is dire poverty. Protein-starved children are a pathetic sight and there are millions of them. They are dull-eyed little creatures, too frail and lethargic to have enough energy to play or learn, too weak to resist diseases. New Zealand milk biscuits provide a quick and palatable way of supplying these children with protein. Each biscuit contains the nutritive value of one-third of a pint of whole milk, with vitamins A and D, niacin and minerals - -such as iron—added. And it (costs only $6.8 r to provide tone protein-deficient child with one biscuit daily for 12 ; months. To the parents of ’these children, however, this ismall amount of money would (probably sound like an unattainable fortune.

Proteins give energy and ‘build up resistance to many ‘diseases, some of which are ‘only names in New Zealand. Without proteins, undernourished children in poorer countries are particularly vulnerable to pellagra, a deficiency illness which begins with cracking skin and often ends in insanity. (Rickets, anaemia, blindness

and ugly skin sores are a few of the other cruel ailments that afflict children who need milk biscuits. Children given a daily ration of milk biscuits show a marked improvement in health within a few months. Records kept by an Indian welfare organisation in Madras City, for instance,!

showed that children who received the biscuits regularly increased in weight by 31b on an average within six months. First signs of better nutrition were more energetic, more alert and happier children. A New Zealand-born voluntary welfare worker in Madras, Mrs K. Malvenon, said in Christchurch earlier this year that she noticed a difference in the children within weeks. “The change in the children given these biscuits is quite remarkable,” she said, i “You can actually see their ifaces becoming chubby, their (skins clearing up, and their leyes becoming brighter.” DAY’S HIGHLIGHT A report from New Guinea says the biscuits have improved the general health of the children and have reduced the need for calling on healthl services. Credit was also' given to the biscuits tor a, growing attendance at the! Passionist Missionaries’! School. Other countries in South-East Asia remark on, an upsurge of vitality, a big!

drop in the number of sea-1 bies cases and boils. The children enjoy nibbling milk biscuits, which are flavoured with chocolate, vanilla, orange, strawberry, pineapple, lime, or banana. Distribution time is the highlight of the day. The Jaycee Wholemilk Bisicuit appeal is something imaginative New Zealand children understand. That is one reason why schools have been asked to support it by holding special money-raising efforts such as “walk-a-thons” or fairs. I Information kits, including !“Protein for Life," a gramophone record in which an In-(

■dian and three Samoan child-■ !ren tell the story of the, ’biscuits, have been sent to New Zealand schools. If the Jaycees reach their target, the funds raised will enable the Food Bank of New Zealand to buy more than 16,750,000 or 300 tons of milk! biesuits. And that is enough to provide 15,288 children with one milk biscuit a day! for three years. In the photograph ; (above) Bill Cosby holds the disc, “Protein for Life,” I with three of the four j Auckland school children I who made the recording for i ’ the New Zealand WholeI milk Biscuit Appeal. From the left: Viola Asi, RowI anne Paea, Bill Cosby, and I Perenita Tavita.