At Arriva we have responded to the request of Médicos sin Fronteras in order to make the public aware of the risk of death to which 20 million children are exposed due to severe malnutrition.

• We will distribute 3.500 MUACs amongst our passengers at our ticket offices at the bus stations in Ferrol, A Coruña, Lugo and Santiago de Compostela, in November 2008.
• In developing countries, MUACs (Middle-Upper Arm-Circumference) are bracelets placed on a child’s upper arm to measure his nutritional state.
• Each MUAC handed out will mean another person sending out the message that millions of children can be saved from starvation by being provided with Reddy to consume, therapeutic food. A solution which, at the moment, only reaches 3% of victims.
• We also encourage participation in an online-marathon to promote this initiative on the web www.tratamientorevolucionario.com ^[1].

STATEMENTS

During the presentation of this initiative, at the Ferrol bus station, on November 4th 2008, Tony Williamson, Managing Director of Arriva in Spain and Portugal, stated:

Arriva’s Code of Conduct states that all professionals in the company, “should contribute to improve the quality of life of society”, as well as “making efforts to reduce the impact of our activity on the environment”.
Solidarity and on-going development are part of the company’s values and both are closely related to the fight against famine in the third World. That’s why we’re delighted to collaborate with Médicos sin Fronteras in this initiative.

María Díaz Martínez, representative of Médicos sin Fronteras in the Northwest of Spain was also present, she stated:

It’s necessary for people to be aware of the causes, consequences and Solutions of infant malnutrition. We hope that, by living out MUACs and doing the on-line marathon, we will be able to make the Galician population aware of the fact that 20 million children suffer severe malnutrition every year.

IMAGES

You can download photos of the presentation on our Flickr ^[2]:

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DOCUMENTATION

You can download this press release pressing print at the end of this article. There’s also the following related material available:

• Leaflet Infant malnutrition, an unattended medical emergency ^[5] (Spanish PDF 1,10MB).
• Link to press release Twenty million children in danger of dying need an answer ^[6], by Médicos sin Fronteras (Spanish).

REACTIONS

Press (PDF 883 KB) ^[7] | EcoDiario.es ^[8] | La Voz de Galicia.es ^[9] |