Anne launches appeal

Press, 2 March 1984, Page 6

Anne launches appeal

NZPA-PA London Princess Anne, back from her tour of the droughtstricken areas of West Africa, launched a new appeal yesterday to help the poor of the Third World. She gave her backing to a plan to raise £750,000 ($NZ1,620,000) to expand a nutrition unit in Dhaka, Bangladesh, run by the Save the Children Fund. The Queen visited it late last year.

The Princess told a news conference in London that the unit was particularly important because it would educate mothers in basic nutrition, as well as providing immediate help for starving children.

“It is the third-poorest country in the world and they have an horrific population problem which is a long-term problem,” she said. The appeal is being launched jointly by the Fund, of which she is president, and the Townswomen’s Guild, of which she is patron. She said that the link was coincidental and had come as a ‘“complete surprise.” The Princess, unusually chairing a news conference, said that the inspiration for the appeal had come after her mother’s visit to the centre and television news coverage of the event. She said that the Fund loved a long-term educational pro-

ject and the guild believed firmly in education to improve everybody’s health.

“The nutrition unit in Dhaka not only saves the lives of severely malnourished children but also educates their mothers in the basics of ante-natal care, nutrition, hygiene, and health care so that their children are less likely to be reduced to the same state again.”

Asked about her other Save the ' Children Fund work, she said: “You do not have priorities in this kind of work — it is impossible to have. It is a very impoverished area but there are other areas in the world with similar problems.”